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's the reason women are more likely to live longer than men? What is the reason is this difference growing in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we only have partial answers. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all play a role in the fact that women live longer than men; but we don't know exactly how significant the impact of each factor is.

We are aware that women are living longer than males, regardless of weight. However it is not because of certain biological or non-biological factors have changed. What are these changing 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 ماذا يحدث بين الزوجين في الحمام بالصور men and women. It is clear that every country is over the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl from every country could anticipate to live longer than her older brother.

This graph shows that although women have an advantage everywhere, cross-country differences can be significant. In Russia women live 10 years more than males. In Bhutan the difference is just half a year.

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In wealthy countries, the women's advantage in longevity used to be smaller
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The next chart plots male and female life expectancies at birth in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two distinct features stand out.

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

Second, there's a widening gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used be very small however it increased dramatically over the last century.

If you select the option "Change country from the chart, you are able to check that these two points apply to the other countries having available information: Sweden, France and the UK.