Why Are Women Living 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 is the reason women live longer than men? What is the reason the advantage has grown in the past? There isn't much evidence and we only have incomplete solutions. Although we know that there are biological, behavioral and environmental factors which all play a part in the longevity of women over men, we do not know how much each one contributes.

In spite of the number of pounds, we know that at least part of the reason why women live longer than men however not as in the past, has to relate to the fact that several key non-biological factors have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others 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 - which means that in every country baby girls can expect to live longer than a newborn boy.1

Interestingly, this chart shows that while the female advantage exists across all countries, the country-specific differences are huge. In Russia, women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the difference is less than half a calendar year.

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The female advantage in life expectancy was smaller in the richer countries than it is today.
Let's now look at the way that female advantages in life expectancy has changed over time. The following chart shows the life expectancy of males and females at birth in the US between 1790 and صبغ الشعر بالاسود 2014. Two things stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Women and men living in America are living longer than they used to a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

And second, there is an ever-widening gap: female advantage in life expectancy used be quite small however it increased dramatically in the past century.

By selecting 'Change Country from the chart, you will be able to verify that these two points are applicable to the other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.