Why Do 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 is the reason women are more likely to live longer than men? And how is this difference growing over time? The evidence is limited and we only have limited answers. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral as well as environmental factors which play a significant role in women's longevity more than males, we aren't sure how much each factor contributes.

Independently of the exact number of pounds, we know that a large portion of the reason why women live so much longer than men in the present however not as in the past, has to have to do with the fact that a number of 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. 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, 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 every country is above the diagonal parity line ; which means that in every country that a baby girl can be expected to live longer than a new boy.1

It is interesting to note that although the female advantage exists in all countries, cross-country differences are large. In Russia, women live 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of less than half a calendar year.

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The advantage women had in terms of life expectancy was lower in countries with higher incomes as compared to the present.
Let's examine how the advantage of women in life expectancy has changed over time. The next chart compares male and female life expectancies at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two areas stand علامات الحمل بولد out.

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

Second, there's an increase in the gap between men and women: علامات الحمل بولد female advantage in life expectancy used be very small, but it grew substantially over the last century.

If you select the option "Change country by country' in the chart, you are able to determine if these two points apply to other countries that have available data: Sweden, France and the UK.