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. Why do women live so much longer than men today and why is this difference growing in the past? We only have a few clues and the evidence is not sufficient to support an absolute conclusion. We know that behavioral, biological and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women have longer lives than men, however, we do not know how much the influence of each one of these factors is.

In spite of the precise amount of weight, we are aware that at least part of the reason why women live so much longer than men today, but not previously, is to do with the fact that some fundamental non-biological factors have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others are more complex. For example, كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور 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 parity line , which means that in every country the newborn girl is likely to live longer than a newborn boy.1

Interestingly, this chart shows that while the female advantage is present everywhere, difference between countries is huge. In Russia women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan the gap is only half a year.

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In the richer countries, the advantage of women in longevity was smaller
Let's now look at the way that female advantages in longevity has changed with time. The next chart plots male and female life expectancies when they were born in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two specific points stand out.

There is an upward trend. as well as women in the US are living much, much longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is getting wider: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy used to be very small It has significantly increased over time.

If you select the option "Change country in the chart, you will be able to confirm that the two points apply to other countries that have available data: Sweden, France and the UK.