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 live longer than men? Why is this difference growing over time? The evidence is sketchy and we have only partial answers. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological, and environmental factors that all play a role in women's longevity more than males, it isn't clear how much each one contributes.

We know that women are living longer than males, regardless of weight. However it is not because of certain biological or non-biological factors have changed. These are the factors that are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Other 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, 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 every country is over the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl from every country could be expected to live for longer than her brothers.

This chart illustrates that, although there is a women's advantage in all countries, the differences across countries are often significant. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan the difference is only half a year.

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In wealthy countries, the advantage of women in longevity used to be smaller
Let's examine how the gender advantage in longevity has changed with time. The chart below illustrates the men and women's life expectancies when they were born in the US between 1790 to 2014. Two things stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend: Men and women in the US have a much longer life span longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

And second, there is an increase in the gap between men and زيوت تطويل الشعر women: female advantage in life expectancy used be very small however, it has increased significantly in the past century.

When you click on the option "Change country in the chart, you are able to confirm that the two points are also applicable to other countries that have available data: Sweden, France and the UK.