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 longer than men? What is the reason does this benefit increase over time? The evidence is sketchy and we're only able to provide some answers. Although we know that there are biological, behavioral and environmental factors which all play a part in the longevity of women over men, we don't know what percentage each factor plays in.

It is known that women live longer than men, regardless of their weight. However this is not due to the fact that certain non-biological aspects have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others that are more intricate. For example, زيوت تطويل الشعر 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 زيوت تطويل الشعر women. As we can see, all countries are above the diagonal parity line - it means that in all nations a newborn girl can expect to live for longer than a new boy.1

The chart below shows that while there is a female advantage in all countries, the differences across countries are often significant. In Russia women live 10 years more than males. In Bhutan the difference is only half a year.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was much lower in developed countries than it is today.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The following chart shows the male and female lifespans when they were born in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two areas stand out.

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

And second, there is an increasing gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used to be extremely small but it increased substantially over the course of the last century.

Using the option 'Change country in the chart, you will be able to check that these two points apply to other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.