Why Are Women Living 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 does this benefit increase in the past? The evidence is limited and we have only some solutions. Although we know that there are biological, psychological and environmental variables that play an integral role in women's longevity more than men, we do not know what percentage each factor plays in.

Independently of the exact weight, we know that at a minimum, the reason women live so much longer than men in the present, but not previously, has to have to do with the fact that a number of fundamental non-biological factors have changed. What are these new factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others 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. As we can see, all countries are above the diagonal parity line - this means that in all countries baby girls can expect to live longer than a newborn boy.1

The chart below shows that although women have an advantage in all countries, the differences across countries can be significant. In Russia women are 10 years older than men. In Bhutan the difference is just half one year.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was smaller in rich countries that it is today.
Let's examine how the female advantage in life expectancy has changed over time. The following chart shows the men and women's life expectancies at the birth in the US during the period 1790-2014. Two areas stand out.

First, 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.

And second, there is an increase in the gap between men and women: كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور female advantage in life expectancy used be quite small however, it has increased significantly over the last century.

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