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 is the reason women live more than men do today, and why does this benefit increase in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we only have incomplete solutions. We know there are biological, psychological, and environmental factors that play an integral role in women living longer than males, we aren't sure the extent to which each factor plays a role.

We have learned that women are living longer than men, علامات الحمل بولد regardless of weight. But, this is not due to the fact that certain non-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, 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. We can see that all countries are above the diagonal parity line - this means that in all countries the newborn girl is likely to live longer than a new boy.1

This chart illustrates that, although women have an advantage in all countries, the differences across countries could be significant. In Russia women are 10 years older than males; while in Bhutan the gap is less than half an hour.

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The advantage women had in terms of life expectancy was lower in developed countries than it is now.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart shows male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two specific points stand out.

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

The gap is getting wider: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy was once tiny however, it has grown significantly over time.

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