Why Do Women Have Longer Lives 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 main reason women have a longer life span than men? And how is this difference growing over time? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to reach an absolute conclusion. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral and environmental variables which all play a part in the longevity of women over men, we don't know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

It is known that women are living longer than males, افضل كريم للشعر regardless of weight. However this is not due to the fact that certain biological or non-biological factors have changed. These factors are changing. 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. We can see that all countries are above the diagonal parity line - this means that in all countries that a baby girl can be expected to live for longer than a new boy.1

It is interesting to note that the advantage of women exists everywhere, the global differences are significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan, the difference is just half a year.

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The female advantage in life expectancy was smaller in developed countries that it is today.
Let's examine how the female advantage in life expectancy has changed over time. The following chart shows the life expectancy of males and females when they were born in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two specific points stand out.

There is an upward trend. Both genders in America have longer lives than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is widening: While the advantage of women in life expectancy used to be tiny, it has increased substantially over time.

When you click on the option "Change country in the chart, you are able to determine if these two points also apply to the other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.