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 are more likely to live longer than men? What is the reason has this advantage gotten larger over time? The evidence is limited and we're only able to provide some answers. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all play a role in the fact that women are healthier than men; but we don't know exactly how significant the impact to each of these variables is.

In spite of the precise number of pounds, we know that at least a portion of the reason women live longer than men in the present, but not previously, is to have to do with the fact that some important non-biological aspects have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Some are more complex. For example, علامات الحمل بولد 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 علامات الحمل بولد women. As you can see, every country is above the diagonal line of parity - this means in all countries a newborn girl can expect to live for longer than a new boy.1

This chart illustrates that, even though women enjoy an advantage across all countries, differences between countries are often significant. In Russia women are 10 years older than men. In Bhutan the difference is less than half a year.

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In countries with high incomes, the women's advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
We will now examine how the female advantage in terms of longevity has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at the birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two areas stand out.

First, there's an upward trend. Both men as well as women in the US live a lot, much longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The second is that there is an increase in the gap between men and women: female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be very modest but it increased substantially during the last century.

You can check if these principles are also applicable to other countries with data by selecting the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.