Why 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 so more than men do today and how have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? There isn't much evidence and we're left with only some solutions. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women are healthier than men; however, we aren't sure how significant the impact to each of these variables is.

In spite of the number of pounds, we know that a large portion of the reason why women live so much longer than men today but not in the past, is to have to do with the fact that a number of significant non-biological elements have changed. What are the factors that are changing? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others are more complicated. For example, اضيق وضعية للجماع 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. We can see that all countries are over the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl from every country could expect to live longer than her older brother.

The chart below shows that although women have an advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries can be substantial. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the difference is just half a year.

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In countries with high incomes, the women's advantage in longevity used to be smaller
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart compares the life expectancy of males and females when they were born in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Both men as well as women in the US have a much longer life span longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is growing: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy used to be quite small, it has increased substantially in the past.

Using the option 'Change country in the chart, you are able to confirm that the two points are applicable to the other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.