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. Why do women live much longer than men today and why have these advantages gotten bigger over time? The evidence isn't conclusive and we're only able to provide limited answers. While we are aware that there are biological, psychological and environmental factors which play a significant role in women living longer than men, we do not know what percentage each factor plays in.

We have learned that women live longer than men, regardless of weight. But this is not because of certain biological or non-biological factors have changed. What are these factors that have changed? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, صبغ الشعر بالاسود 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, صبغ الشعر بالاسود 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 anticipate to live longer than her older brother.

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

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In rich countries the longevity advantage for women used to be smaller
Let's now look at how the advantage of women in terms of longevity has changed over time. The next chart compares the male and female lifespans at birth in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two points stand out.

There is an upward trend. Women and men in America have longer lives than they used to 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is growing: Although the female advantage in life expectancy used to be very small but it has risen significantly in the past.

When you click on the option "Change country by country' in the chart, you can verify that these two points apply to other countries that have available information: Sweden, France and the UK.