Why Women Are More Likely To 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 longer than men and how has this advantage increased over time? We have only a small amount of evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to support an absolute conclusion. Although we know that there are biological, behavioral as well as environmental factors that all play a role in women who live longer than men, we do not know what percentage each factor plays in.

We have learned that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. However this is not because of certain non-biological aspects have changed. These variables are evolving. Some are well known and 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 افضل كريم للشعر women. It is clear that every country is above the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl from any country can expect to live longer than her brother.

The chart above shows that while the female advantage is present everywhere, global differences are significant. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than males; while in Bhutan the gap is less than half an hour.

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In wealthy countries, the women's advantage in longevity was smaller
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The next chart compares the male and female lifespans at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two things stand out.

There is an upward trend. Women and men 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.

Second, the gap is getting wider: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy was once tiny, it has increased substantially in the past.

It is possible to verify that these points are also applicable to other countries with data by selecting the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, افضل كريم للشعر and Sweden.