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. Why do women live longer than men and how is this difference growing over time? There isn't much evidence and we're only able to provide partial answers. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral and environmental factors which all play a part in women who live longer than males, we aren't sure the extent to which each factor plays a role.

It is known that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. But, this is not due to the fact that certain 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. Certain are more complicated. 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, العاب زوجية 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 العاب زوجية (simply click the following page) women. It is clear that every country is 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 chart illustrates that, while there is a female advantage everywhere, cross-country differences can be significant. In Russia, women live for 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of less than half a calendar year.

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In wealthy countries, the advantage of women in longevity was not as great.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancy at the birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two areas stand out.

First, there is an upward trend: Men as well as 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.

Second, the gap is widening: While the female advantage in life expectancy was once extremely small however, it has grown significantly over time.

You can confirm that these are applicable to other countries that have data by clicking the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.