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. Why do women live longer than men in the present and why is this difference growing in the past? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to reach an unambiguous conclusion. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral and environmental variables which all play a part in women living longer than men, we do not know how much each factor contributes.

In spite of how much number of pounds, we know that at least part of the reason women live so much longer than men today and not in the past, has to relate to the fact that certain key 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. Certain 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, so advances in medicine that reduced the long-term health burden from infectious diseases, especially for علامات الحمل بولد 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 every country is over the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl in all countries can expect to live longer than her younger brother.

This graph shows that while there is a female advantage in all countries, علامات الحمل بولد the differences across countries can be substantial. In Russia women have a longer life span than men; in Bhutan the gap is just half a year.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was much lower in rich countries as compared to the present.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The next chart compares male and female life expectancies at birth in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two points stand out.

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.

Second, the gap is widening: While the advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was tiny but it has risen significantly in the past.

It is possible to verify that these principles 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.