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 are more likely to live longer than men? And why is this difference growing over time? There isn't much evidence and we're left with only incomplete solutions. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral and environmental factors which play a significant role in women who live longer than men, we don't know how much each factor contributes.

Independently of the exact number of pounds, we know that at least a portion of the reason why women live so much longer than men do today but not in the past, has to relate to the fact that certain significant non-biological elements have changed. What are these new factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Certain 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, 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 line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl from every country could expect to live longer than her younger brother.

This chart illustrates that, while there is a female advantage everywhere, cross-country differences could be significant. In Russia, صبغ الشعر بالاسود women live 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan the gap is only half a year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was smaller in rich countries that it is today.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancy at birth in the US from 1790 until 2014. Two things stand out.

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

Second, the gap is increasing: While the advantage of women in life expectancy was quite small but it has risen significantly with time.

If you select the option "Change country from the chart, you can check that these two points apply to the other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.