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. Why do women live longer than men and why has this advantage increased in the past? We only have partial evidence and the evidence is not strong enough to make an informed conclusion. We know there are biological, psychological and environmental variables which all play a part in women who live longer than men, we don't know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

In spite of the precise amount, we can say that at least part of the reason why women live so much longer than men however not as in the past, has to have to do with the fact that a number of significant non-biological elements have changed. These factors are changing. 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, 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 , which means that in every country baby girls can expect to live for longer than a new boy.1

This chart is interesting in that it shows that while the female advantage exists in all countries, country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women live 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan the gap is just half a year.

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In the richer countries, the female advantage in longevity used to be smaller
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below shows male and female life expectancy at the birth in the US in the years 1790 to 2014. Two points stand out.

There is an upward trend. Women and men living in America are living longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is getting wider: Although the female advantage in life expectancy was once extremely small but it has risen significantly over time.

By selecting 'Change Country from the chart, check that these two points are applicable to the other countries having available information: كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور Sweden, France and the UK.