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 is the reason women live more than men do today and how does this benefit increase over time? The evidence is limited and we only have incomplete solutions. We know there are biological, psychological and environmental factors that play an integral role in women living longer than males, it isn't clear how much each factor contributes.

It is known that women are living longer than males, regardless of weight. However this is not because of certain non-biological aspects have changed. These variables are evolving. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are other issues 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 men and women. As we can see, every country is above the diagonal parity line ; which means that in every country that a baby girl can be expected to live longer than a new boy.1

It is interesting to note that the advantage of women exists across all countries, the difference between countries is huge. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan, the difference is less that half a year.

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In the richer countries, the advantage of women in longevity used to be smaller
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart compares the male and ابر التخسيس female lifespans at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two areas stand out.

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

And second, there is an ever-widening gap: female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be very modest, but it grew substantially over the course of the last century.

Using the option 'Change country' on 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.