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 longer than men and why have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? There is only limited evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to draw a definitive conclusion. While we are aware that there are biological, psychological and environmental variables which play a significant role in women's longevity more than men, we don't know how much each factor contributes.

We are aware that women are living longer than males, regardless of weight. However it is not because of certain 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. Certain 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, علامات الحمل بولد 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. It is clear that all countries are over the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl in every country can expect to live longer than her younger brother.

It is interesting to note that while the female advantage is present everywhere, difference between countries is huge. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men, while in Bhutan the difference is just half a year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was much lower in countries with higher incomes than it is now.
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below illustrates the gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at the birth in the US in the years 1790 to 2014. Two points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Both genders in the United States live longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The second is that there is an ever-widening gap: female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be very modest, but it grew substantially over the course of the last century.

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