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 so longer than men and how has this advantage increased in the past? The evidence is limited and we're only able to provide incomplete answers. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral, and environmental factors which all play a part in women living longer than males, we aren't sure what percentage each factor plays in.

We are aware that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. However, this is not because of certain biological or زيوت تطويل الشعر non-biological factors have changed. What are these factors that have changed? 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 all countries are above the diagonal parity line ; it means that in all nations the newborn girl is likely to live for longer than a new boy.1

This chart illustrates that, although there is a women's advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries are often significant. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than men; in Bhutan the gap is just half an hour.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was less in developed countries than it is today.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart compares male and female life expectancies when they were born in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two points stand out.

There is an upward trend. Men and women living in America are living 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 once extremely small but it has risen significantly in the past.

You can verify that these points are also applicable to other countries with data by clicking on the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.