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 reason women live longer than men? What is the reason does this benefit increase over time? There is only limited evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to support an absolute conclusion. We are aware that behavioral, biological and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women have longer lives than men, but we don't know exactly how strong the relative contribution of each factor is.

Independently of the exact amount, we can say that at least part of the reason why women live longer than men do today, but not previously, has to do with the fact that several key non-biological factors have changed. These variables are evolving. 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 above the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl in all countries can expect to live longer than her younger brother.

The chart above shows that while the female advantage is present everywhere, difference between countries is huge. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the difference is less that half a year.

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In the richer countries, the female advantage in longevity used to be smaller
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The next chart plots male and female life expectancies at birth in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two areas stand out.

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

Second, there's a widening gap: العاب زوجية (in the know) The female advantage in life expectancy used to be extremely small however it increased dramatically over the last century.

If you select the option "Change country in the chart, you can confirm that the two points are also applicable to the other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.