Why Are Women Living 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 over time? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't strong enough to make an informed conclusion. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all play a role in the fact that women have longer lives than men, but we don't know exactly what the contribution of each factor is.

In spite of how much amount of weight, we are aware that at a minimum, the reason women live so much longer than men in the present but not in the past, is to do with the fact that several significant non-biological elements have changed. What are these new factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Some are more complex. 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 men and women. It is clear that all countries are above the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl from any country can expect to live longer than her brothers.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that although the female advantage exists everywhere, the country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than men; in Bhutan the difference is just half a year.

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The advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was lower in developed countries than it is today.
We will now examine how the female advantage in life expectancy has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancies at the time of birth in the US during the period 1790-2014. Two areas stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men and اوضاع الجماع 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 female advantage in life expectancy used to be tiny but it has risen significantly with time.

When you click on the option "Change country in the chart, you will be able to verify that these two points apply to the other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.