Why Do Women Have Longer Lives 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 in the present, and why does this benefit increase in the past? There is only limited evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to reach an informed conclusion. While we are aware that there are biological, psychological and environmental factors which play a significant role in women who live longer than men, we do not know what percentage each factor plays in.

It is known that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. But it is not because of 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. Some are more complex. For example, افضل شامبو وبلسم 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 that in all countries that a baby girl can be expected to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart illustrates that, although women have an advantage in all countries, the differences across countries can be substantial. In Russia women live 10 years more than males. In Bhutan the gap is just half a year.

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In the richer countries, the women's advantage in longevity was not as great.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The next chart shows the life expectancy of males and females when they were born in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two points stand out.

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

Second, the gap is getting wider: Although the female advantage in terms of life expectancy was tiny however, it has grown significantly over time.

By selecting 'Change Country in the chart, check that these two points apply to other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.