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's the main reason women are more likely to live longer than men? And why does this benefit increase in the past? We only have partial evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to reach an unambiguous conclusion. We know there are biological, behavioral and environmental variables which all play a part in the longevity of women over men, we do not know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

We know that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. But it is not because of certain biological or 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. There are others that are more intricate. 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. As you can see, all countries are above the diagonal parity line - which means that in every country the newborn girl is likely to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

The chart above shows that although the female advantage exists in all countries, global differences are significant. In Russia, women live 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of less that half a year.

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The female advantage in life expectancy was less in developed countries than it is now.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The chart below shows gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at the birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two specific points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men and women in the United States live longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

And second, صبغ الشعر بالاسود there is an ever-widening gap: female advantage in life expectancy used be quite small but it increased substantially in the past century.

When you click on the option "Change country' on the chart, you are able to determine if these two points apply to other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.