Why Do Women Live 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's the reason why women have a longer life span than men? And how the advantage has grown as time passes? The evidence isn't conclusive and صبغ الشعر بالاسود we're left with only some answers. We are aware that behavioral, biological and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women have longer life spans than men, but we don't know exactly how strong the relative contribution of each of these factors is.

In spite of the precise weight, we know that at least part of the reason women live so much longer than men in the present but not previously, has to relate to the fact that certain important 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. Some are more complex. For example, صبغ الشعر بالاسود 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 line of parity. This implies that a baby girl in all countries can be expected to live for longer than her older brother.

This chart illustrates that, although there is a women's advantage everywhere, cross-country differences are often significant. In Russia women have a longer life span than men, while in Bhutan the difference is just half each year.

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In countries with high incomes, the women's advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's now look at how the female advantage in longevity has changed with time. The chart below shows male and female life expectancy at birth in the US between 1790-2014. Two areas stand out.

First, there is an upward trend: Men and women in the US live much, much longer than they did a century 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 used to be tiny It has significantly increased over time.

You can confirm that these are applicable to other countries that have information by clicking on the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.