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 in the present, and why have these advantages gotten bigger over time? There isn't much evidence and we only have partial answers. Although we know that there are behavioral, biological and environmental factors which all play a part in the longevity of women over males, we aren't sure how much each factor contributes.

In spite of the amount of weight, we are aware that at least a portion of the reason why women live so much longer than men in the present, but not in the past, is to be due to the fact that a number of important 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, 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 اضيق وضعية للجماع men and women. We can see that every country is above the diagonal line of parity - this means that in all countries the newborn girl is likely to live longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart illustrates that, even though women enjoy an advantage everywhere, cross-country differences are often significant. In Russia women have a longer life span than men, while in Bhutan the gap is less than half a year.

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In rich countries the female advantage in longevity used to be smaller
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The following chart shows the life expectancy of males and females when they were born in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two specific points stand out.

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

There is an increase in the gap between men and women: female advantage in life expectancy used be quite small however, it has increased significantly during the last century.

By selecting 'Change Country from the chart, you will be able to determine if these two points are also applicable to other countries that have available data: Sweden, France and the UK.