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 longer than men and how is this difference growing in the past? We have only a small amount of evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to support an absolute conclusion. We are aware that behavioral, biological and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women have longer lives than men, however, we aren't sure how strong the relative contribution to each of these variables is.

We have learned that women are living longer than males, regardless of weight. However this isn't due to the fact that certain non-biological aspects have changed. What are the factors that are changing? 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 you can see, every country is above the diagonal parity line , it means that in all nations the newborn girl is likely to live longer than a new boy.1

It is interesting to note that, while the advantage for women exists in all countries, global differences are significant. In Russia women are 10 years older than men; in Bhutan the gap is just half one year.

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In rich countries the female advantage in longevity used to be smaller
We will now examine the way that female advantages in longevity has changed with time. The chart below shows male and female life expectancy at birth in the US between 1790 until 2014. Two things stand صبغ الشعر بالاسود out.

First, there is an upward trend. Both men as well as women in the US live much, much longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is widening: While the advantage of women in life expectancy was once very small It has significantly increased over time.

If you select the option "Change country in the chart, verify that these two points also apply to the other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.