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 is the reason women live longer than men in the present, and why is this difference growing over time? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to support an absolute conclusion. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women are healthier than men; however, we aren't sure how strong the relative contribution of each of these factors is.

In spite of the amount of weight, we are aware that at a minimum, the reason why women live longer than men in the present but not previously, is to relate to the fact that some significant non-biological elements have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Some 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, اوضاع الجماع 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 اوضاع الجماع men and women. As we can see, every country is above the diagonal parity line - this means in all countries that a baby girl can be expected to live longer than a new boy.1

The chart below shows that while there is a female advantage everywhere, cross-country differences can be substantial. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men; in Bhutan the difference is just half an hour.

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In wealthy countries, the women's advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below shows gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at birth in the US in the years 1790 until 2014. Two aspects stand out.

There is an upward trend. Men and women living in America are living longer than they were 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is an ever-widening gap: female advantage in terms of life expectancy used to be very modest but it increased substantially over the last century.

Using the option 'Change country' on the chart, you are able to confirm that the two points also apply to other countries that have available information: Sweden, France and the UK.