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's the main reason women have a longer life span than men? And how has this advantage gotten larger in the past? We have only a small amount of evidence and the evidence is not strong enough to make an unambiguous conclusion. We know there are behavioral, biological as well as environmental factors which all play a part in the longevity of women over men, we do not know how much each one contributes.

We have learned that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. But, this is not due to the fact that certain non-biological aspects have changed. What are these new factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, 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, 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 all countries are over the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl in all countries can anticipate to live longer than her younger brother.

This graph shows that although women have an advantage in all countries, the differences across countries could be significant. In Russia, women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan the difference is only half a year.

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In countries with high incomes, the longevity advantage for women used to be smaller
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancy at the time of birth in the US in the years 1790 to 2014. Two points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men and women in the US have a much longer life span longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is getting wider: زيوت تطويل الشعر Although the female advantage in terms of life expectancy was extremely small but it has risen significantly over time.

If you select the option "Change country' on the chart, check that these two points apply to the other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.