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's the reason women live longer than men? What is the reason is this difference growing in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we have only some answers. We know there are behavioral, biological, and environmental factors that all play a role in women's longevity more than males, it isn't clear what percentage each factor plays in.

In spite of how much weight, we know that at least part of the reason why women live so much longer than men but not previously, has to have to do with the fact that several fundamental non-biological factors have changed. These variables are evolving. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Certain are more complicated. For example, تحاميل مهبلية 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 every country is over the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl in every country can expect to live longer than her younger brother.

It is interesting to note that, while the advantage for women exists everywhere, the difference between countries is huge. In Russia women have a longer life span than males; while in Bhutan the gap is less than half an hour.

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In the richer countries, the longevity advantage for women used to be smaller
We will now examine how the female advantage in longevity has changed over time. The next chart plots the male and female lifespans at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two aspects stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Both genders living in America are living longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, there's an increasing gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be very modest however it increased dramatically over the course of the last century.

It is possible to verify that these principles are also applicable to other countries with data by clicking the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.