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 more than men do today and how have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? The evidence isn't conclusive and we have only partial answers. We know there are biological, behavioral, and environmental factors which play a significant role in women who live longer than males, we aren't sure the extent to which each factor plays a role.

Independently of the exact amount of weight, we are aware that at a minimum, the reason women live so much longer than men do today but not previously, is to be due to the fact that some important non-biological aspects have changed. What are the factors that are changing? 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. We can see that every country is above the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl from any country can be expected to live for longer than her older brother.

Interestingly, this chart shows that, while the advantage for women exists in all countries, 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 rich countries than it is now.
Let's examine the way that female advantages in life expectancy has changed over time. The next chart shows the life expectancy of males and females at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two points stand out.

There is an upward trend: اضيق وضعية للجماع Men as well as women in the US live much, much longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is getting wider: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy was once quite small It has significantly increased over time.

By selecting 'Change Country from the chart, you are able to verify that these two points are also applicable to other countries with available information: Sweden, France and اضيق وضعية للجماع the UK.