Why Do Women Live Longer Than Men

Everywhere in the world women live longer than men - but this was not always the case. The available data from rich countries shows that women didn't live longer than men in the 19th century. What's the main reason women live longer than men? And how has this advantage gotten larger in the past? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't strong enough to make a definitive conclusion. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological and environmental factors which all play a part in the longevity of women over men, we do not know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

We are aware that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. But, this is not due to the fact that certain non-biological aspects have changed. These variables are evolving. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, افضل شامبو وبلسم like the fact that men smoke more often. Some are more complex. For افضل شامبو وبلسم example, there is evidence that in rich countries the female advantage increased in part because infectious diseases used to affect women disproportionately a century ago, so advances in medicine that reduced the long-term health burden from infectious diseases, especially for survivors, ended up raising women's longevity disproportionately.

Everywhere in the world women tend to live longer than men
The first chart below shows life expectancy at birth for men and women. As you can see, every country is above the diagonal parity line ; which means that in every country a newborn girl can expect to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

This graph shows that although there is a women's advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries can be significant. In Russia women have a longer life span than men; in Bhutan the gap is just half an hour.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was smaller in the richer countries than it is today.
Let's examine the way that female advantages in life expectancy has changed over time. The next chart compares male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two points stand out.

There is an upward trend: Men as well as women in the US live much, much longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is a widening gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be very modest however it increased dramatically over the course of the last century.

If you select the option "Change country from the chart, you are able to verify that these two points apply to other countries that have available data: Sweden, France and the UK.