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. What makes women live longer than men in the present and how have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? There isn't much evidence and we have only some answers. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral and environmental variables that play an integral role in women living 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 women live so much longer than men in the present however not as previously, has to do with the fact that some fundamental non-biological factors have changed. What are these new 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, 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 every country is above the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl in every country can be expected to live for longer than her brothers.

The chart above shows that the advantage of women is present everywhere, country-specific differences are huge. In Russia, women live 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan, the difference is less that half a year.

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The advantage women had in terms of life expectancy was lower in rich countries than it is today.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The chart below shows gender-based and female-specific life expectancy when they were born in the US from 1790-2014. Two points stand ابر التخسيس out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Both men and women in the US live much, much longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is an increase in the gap between men and women: female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be quite small, but it grew substantially in the past century.

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