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 makes women live more than men do today and how is this difference growing in the past? We only have a few clues and the evidence isn't sufficient to reach a definitive conclusion. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all play a role in the fact that women have longer lives than men, however, we do not know what the contribution of each of these factors is.

In spite of how much amount, we can say that at least part of the reason why women live so much longer than men in the present however not as previously, has to be due to the fact that several important non-biological aspects have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, اوضاع الجماع 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. As we can see, all countries are above the diagonal line of parity - it means that in all nations that a baby girl can be expected to live longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart illustrates that, although there is a women's advantage everywhere, cross-country differences are often significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of only half a year.

__S.17__
__S.19__
In countries with high incomes, the women's advantage in longevity used to be smaller
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The following chart shows the gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at the birth in the US during the period 1790-2014. Two areas stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend: Men as well as women in the US have a much longer life span longer than they did 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 tiny but it has risen significantly over time.

When you click on the option "Change country in the chart, you are able to determine if these two points apply to the other countries having available information: Sweden, France and the UK.