Why 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 are more likely to live longer than men? And why is this difference growing as time passes? There isn't much evidence and we're left with only limited answers. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women live longer than men; however, we do not know how significant the impact of each of these factors is.

In spite of the precise amount, we can say that at least a portion of the reason women live so much longer than men today but not in the past, is to be due to the fact that some key non-biological factors have changed. These 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. As you can see, every country is above the diagonal line of parity - it means that in all nations a newborn girl can expect to live for longer than a new boy.1

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

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The advantage women had in terms of life expectancy was lower in rich countries as compared to the present.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The chart below shows male and female life expectancies at the birth in the US in the years 1790 to 2014. Two areas stand out.

First, صبغ الشعر بالاسود there is an upward trend. and women in the US are living much, much 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 female advantage in life expectancy used to be tiny but it has risen significantly over time.

If you select the option "Change country' on the chart, determine if these two points are applicable to other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.