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. What makes women live longer than men in the present, and why have these advantages gotten bigger over time? The evidence is limited and we're only able to provide some solutions. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all play a role in the fact that women live longer than men; but we don't know exactly what the contribution of each of these factors is.

In spite of the precise amount, we can say that at least a portion of the reason why women live longer than men however not as previously, is to be due to the fact that certain fundamental non-biological factors have changed. What are the factors that are changing? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Certain are more complicated. 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, كيفية ممارسة العلاقة الزوجية فى الاسلام 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 over the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl in all countries can expect to live longer than her brother.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that, while the advantage for women exists across all countries, the country-specific differences are huge. In Russia, كيفية ممارسة العلاقة الزوجية فى الاسلام women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan, the difference is less that half a year.

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In the richer countries, the women's advantage in longevity was smaller
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below shows men and women's life expectancies at the birth in the US in the years 1790-2014. Two things stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Both men as well as women in the US live much, much longer today than 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 very small It has significantly increased over time.

Using the option 'Change country' on the chart, you are able to check that these two points also apply to other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.