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 live more than men do today and why is this difference growing over time? There isn't much evidence and we only have limited solutions. While we are aware that there are biological, psychological and environmental factors that play an integral role in women's longevity more than men, we do not know how much each factor contributes.

In spite of the weight, we know that at least a portion of the reason why women live so much longer than men but not in the past, is to do with the fact that several fundamental non-biological factors have changed. What are these factors that have changed? 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 men and women. As we can see, all countries are above the diagonal parity line ; this means in all countries baby girls can expect to live longer than a newborn boy.1

It is interesting to note that while the female advantage is present everywhere, country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women live for افضل شامبو وبلسم [my company] 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of just half a year.

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In wealthy countries, the female advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The following chart shows male and female life expectancies at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. as well as women in the US live a lot, much longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The second is that there is a widening gap: افضل شامبو وبلسم The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used to be quite small but it increased substantially over the course of the last century.

You can confirm that these principles are also applicable to other countries with data by selecting the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.