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. What's the reason why women have a longer life span than men? What is the reason has this advantage gotten larger over time? There is only limited evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to support an absolute conclusion. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women live longer than men; but we don't know exactly how much the influence to each of these variables is.

In spite of the amount, we can say that a large portion of the reason women live longer than men however not as in the past, is to be due to the fact that certain significant non-biological elements have changed. What are these factors that have changed? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others that are more intricate. For تحاميل مهبلية 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. It is clear that every country is over 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 is interesting in that it shows that, while the advantage for women exists across all countries, the global differences are significant. In Russia women have a longer life span than men. In Bhutan the difference is less than half each year.

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In rich countries the women's advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's now look at how the female advantage in longevity has changed with time. The chart below illustrates the men and women's life expectancies when they were born in the US during the period 1790 until 2014. Two areas stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men and women in America have longer lives than they used to a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is widening: While the advantage of women in life expectancy was once very small but it has risen significantly with time.

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