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 reason why women are more likely to live longer than men? And how does this benefit increase in the past? The evidence is limited and we have only limited solutions. Although we know that there are biological, behavioral as well as environmental factors which all play a part in women's longevity more than men, we don't know how much each factor contributes.

We have learned that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. But this is not due to the fact that certain biological factors have changed. These are the factors that are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others that are more intricate. 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 you can see, all countries are above the diagonal parity line , this means in all countries a newborn girl can expect to live longer than a newborn boy.1

Interestingly, this chart shows that while the female advantage exists across all countries, صبغ الشعر بالاسود the difference between countries is huge. In Russia women live 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of less than half a calendar year.

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In wealthy countries, the longevity advantage for women was previously smaller.
We will now examine how the advantage of women in terms of longevity has changed over time. The next chart compares the life expectancy of males and females when they were born in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two distinct features stand صبغ الشعر بالاسود out.

First, there is an upward trend: Men as well as women in the US are living much, much longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is growing: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy used to be extremely small however, it has grown significantly over time.

By selecting 'Change Country' on the chart, you will be able to determine if these two points also apply to other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.