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 why women live longer than men? Why the advantage has grown as time passes? We have only a small amount of evidence and the evidence is not strong enough to make a definitive conclusion. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral and environmental variables which play a significant role in women living longer than males, it isn't clear how much each factor contributes.

In spite of the weight, we know that at least a portion of the reason why women live longer than men in the present but not previously, has to have to do with the fact that a number of fundamental non-biological factors have changed. These variables are evolving. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Some 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, so advances in medicine that reduced the long-term health burden from infectious diseases, كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور 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 you can see, 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 new boy.1

This chart illustrates that, even though women enjoy an advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries can be significant. In Russia women are 10 years older than males; while in Bhutan the gap is less than half one year.

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In wealthy countries, the longevity advantage for women was smaller
Let's look at how the advantage of women in longevity has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancy at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two things stand out.

There is an upward trend. Men and women in America live longer than they used to a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is a widening gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used be very small however, it has increased significantly in the past century.

It is possible to verify that these are applicable to other countries that have information by clicking on the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.