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. Why do women live so longer than men in the present, and why have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we only have incomplete answers. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral and environmental variables which play a significant role in women's longevity more than males, it isn't clear what percentage each factor plays in.

It is known that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. But this isn't due to the fact that certain non-biological factors have changed. These factors 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, ابر التخسيس 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. We can see that every country is above the diagonal parity line , this means that in all countries that a baby girl can be expected to live longer than a newborn boy.1

It is interesting to note that while the female advantage is present everywhere, cross-country differences are large. In Russia, women live 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan the difference is less that half a year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was less in countries with higher incomes than it is now.
We will now examine how the advantage of women in terms of longevity has changed over time. The following chart shows the life expectancy of males and females at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two areas stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Both genders in America have longer lives than they were a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is increasing: While the female advantage in terms of life expectancy was very small, it has increased substantially over time.

You can verify that these points are also applicable to other countries with information by clicking on the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.