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 have these advantages gotten bigger over time? There is only limited evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to support a definitive conclusion. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women have longer lives than men, but we don't know exactly what the contribution of each one of these factors is.

In spite of the number of pounds, we know that at a minimum, the reason women live so much longer than men however not as in the past, has to have to do with the fact that several key non-biological factors have changed. These variables are evolving. 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, 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 over the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl in all countries can anticipate to live longer than her older brother.

The chart below shows that even though women enjoy an advantage across all countries, differences between countries could be significant. In Russia, العاب زوجية (how you can help) women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the gap is less that half a year.

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The female advantage in terms of life expectancy was lower in rich countries than it is now.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart shows male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two areas stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Women and men in America live 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 getting wider: Although the female advantage in life expectancy was quite small It has significantly increased with time.

By selecting 'Change Country from the chart, you are able to determine if these two points are applicable to the other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.