Why Women Are More Likely To 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's the reason women are more likely to live longer than men? Why the advantage has grown over time? The evidence is limited and we're left with only partial answers. We know there are biological, behavioral as well as environmental factors that play an integral role in women who live longer than men, we don't know how much each one contributes.

Independently of the exact amount of weight, we are aware that a large portion of the reason women live longer than men but not previously, is to do with the fact that several significant non-biological elements have changed. What are these changing factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others are more complex. 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. As we can see, all countries are above the diagonal parity line ; this means that in all countries baby girls can expect to live for longer than a new boy.1

Interestingly, this chart shows that although the female advantage exists everywhere, the global differences are significant. In Russia women live 10 years more than males. In Bhutan, the difference is less that half a year.

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In the richer countries, the women's advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's look at how the gender 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 1790-2014. Two things stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Women and men in America live longer 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 advantage of women in life expectancy used to be quite small but it has risen significantly over time.

You can confirm that 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.