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 live longer than men? Why has this advantage gotten larger over time? There isn't much evidence and we have only incomplete answers. We know there are behavioral, biological and environmental variables that all play a role in the longevity of women over men, we do not know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

We have learned that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. However, this is not due to the fact that certain biological or non-biological factors have changed. These are the factors that are changing. 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, اضيق وضعية للجماع 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 اضيق وضعية للجماع women. We can see that all countries are above the diagonal line of parity - which means that in every country the newborn girl is likely to live for longer than a new boy.1

It is interesting to note that the advantage of women exists everywhere, the global differences are significant. In Russia, women live for 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan, the difference is just half a year.

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In rich countries the advantage of women in longevity used to be smaller
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The following chart shows the male and female lifespans at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men and women in America live 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 growing: Although the female advantage in terms of life expectancy was very small, it has increased substantially in the past.

If you select the option "Change country' on the chart, you are able to verify that these two points are applicable to the other countries having available data: Sweden, France and the UK.