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. What makes women live much longer than men today and how has this advantage increased in the past? We have only a small amount of evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to support an informed conclusion. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women are healthier than men; However, we're not sure how much the influence of each factor is.

We have learned that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. But this is not due to the fact that certain biological factors have changed. These factors 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, تحاميل مهبلية 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 you can see, all countries are above the diagonal line of parity - it means that in all nations a newborn girl can expect to live longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart illustrates that, while there is a female advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries are often significant. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than males; while in Bhutan the difference is just half a year.

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In countries with high incomes, the longevity advantage for women used to be smaller
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart plots the male and female lifespans at birth in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two aspects stand out.

There is an upward trend. Both genders in America live longer than they were 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is growing: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy was tiny but it has risen significantly in the past.

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