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 more than men do today and how has this advantage increased in the past? We only have partial evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to draw an informed conclusion. We know that behavioral, biological and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women live longer than men; however, we do not know what the contribution of each factor is.

We have learned that women are living longer than males, regardless of weight. However this is not because of certain non-biological aspects have changed. These are the factors that are changing. 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, every country is above the diagonal line of parity - it means that in all nations a newborn girl can expect to live for longer than a new boy.1

Interestingly, صبغ الشعر بالاسود this chart shows that the advantage of women exists everywhere, the difference between countries is huge. In Russia women are 10 years older than men. In Bhutan the difference is just half a year.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was smaller in countries with higher incomes that it is today.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancy at the time of birth in the US between 1790 until 2014. Two aspects stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men and women in America have longer lives than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is widening: While the female advantage in life expectancy was tiny but it has risen significantly in the past.

Using the option 'Change country in the chart, you are able to confirm that the two points are applicable to the other countries having available data: صبغ الشعر بالاسود Sweden, France and the UK.