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 makes women live longer than men in the present and why have these advantages gotten bigger over time? We only have a few clues and the evidence isn't sufficient to support an unambiguous conclusion. We know there are biological, behavioral as well as environmental factors which play a significant role in the longevity of women over men, we don't know what percentage each factor plays in.

In spite of how much amount, we can say that at least part of the reason women live longer than men today and not in the past, is to be due to the fact that certain key non-biological factors have changed. What are these changing factors? Some are well known and صبغ الشعر بالاسود relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Some are more complex. For 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 we can see, every country is above the diagonal parity line - this means that in all countries baby girls can expect to live for longer than a new boy.1

The chart above shows that, while the advantage for women is present everywhere, cross-country differences are large. In Russia, women live 10 years more than males. In Bhutan the gap is just half a year.

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The female advantage in life expectancy was smaller in the richer countries than it is today.
Let's examine how the female advantage in longevity has changed over time. The next chart shows male and female life expectancy at birth in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two aspects stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Women and men in America live longer than they were 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is growing: Although the female advantage in life expectancy was once very small but it has risen significantly with time.

By selecting 'Change Country from the chart, you are able to confirm that the two points are applicable to other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.