Why Women Are More Likely To 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, and why has this advantage increased over time? We have only a small amount of evidence and تحاميل مهبلية the evidence is not sufficient to reach an informed conclusion. We know there are biological, psychological and environmental factors which play a significant role in women living longer than males, it isn't clear what percentage each factor plays in.

In spite of how much weight, we know that at least part of the reason women live longer than men today and not in the past, is to be due to the fact that certain important non-biological aspects 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 example, تحاميل مهبلية 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 - this means that in all countries baby girls can expect to live longer than a new boy.1

The chart above shows that although the female advantage exists everywhere, the global differences are significant. In Russia, women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan the gap is less that half a year.

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In the richer countries, the advantage of women in longevity was not as great.
Let's examine the way that female advantages in longevity has changed over time. The chart below shows male and female life expectancy at the birth in the US in the years 1790 until 2014. Two points stand out.

There is an upward trend. Women and men 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.

The gap is increasing: While the female advantage in life expectancy was once tiny, it has increased substantially over time.

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