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? What is the reason has this advantage gotten larger as time passes? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to reach an absolute conclusion. Although we know that there are biological, psychological and environmental factors that play an integral role in women living longer than men, we do not know how much each factor contributes.

It is known that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. However it is not because of certain non-biological aspects have changed. What are these new factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, العاب زوجية 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 العاب زوجية men and women. We can see that every country is above the diagonal parity line ; which means that in every country the newborn girl is likely to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart is interesting in that it shows that although the female advantage is present everywhere, difference between countries is huge. In Russia, women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan the difference is just half a year.

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The female advantage in life expectancy was much lower in developed countries as compared to the present.
Let's examine how the female advantage in longevity has changed over time. The following chart shows the life expectancy of males and females at birth in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men as well as women in the US have a much longer life span 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 a widening gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used to be extremely small however, it has increased significantly over the last century.

By selecting 'Change Country' on the chart, you will be able to check that these two points also apply to other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.