Why 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 more than men do today and why have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? There isn't much evidence and we only have incomplete solutions. We know there are biological, psychological and environmental variables that all play a role in the longevity of women over males, it isn't clear what percentage each factor plays in.

Independently of the exact amount, we can say that at a minimum, the reason women live so much longer than men today, but not in the past, is to relate to the fact that certain fundamental non-biological factors have changed. What are the factors that are changing? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Other are more complicated. 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, العاب زوجية 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, every country is above the diagonal parity line - this means in all countries the newborn girl is likely to live longer than a new boy.1

The chart above shows that although the female advantage exists in all countries, country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than men; in Bhutan the gap is just half one year.

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In countries with high incomes, the women's advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below shows men and women's life expectancies when they were born in the US in the years 1790-2014. Two areas stand out.

There is an upward trend. Men and women in the United States live longer than they used to 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is widening: While the female advantage in life expectancy used to be tiny but it has risen significantly over time.

You can check if these points are also applicable to other countries that have data by selecting the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, العاب زوجية (click the up coming article) France, and Sweden.