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 women live longer than men? And why the advantage has grown in the past? We have only a small amount of evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to support an informed conclusion. Although we know that there are biological, behavioral and environmental variables that all play a role in the longevity of women over males, we aren't sure how much each factor contributes.

Independently of the exact amount, we can say that at least a portion of the reason women live so much longer than men in the present, but not in the past, is to have to do with the fact that some significant non-biological elements have changed. What are these factors that have changed? 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 all countries are above the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl from every country could expect to live longer than her brothers.

This chart illustrates that, even though women enjoy an advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries can be significant. In Russia women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan the difference is less that half a year.

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In rich countries the longevity advantage for women was previously smaller.
Let's now look at how the gender advantage in life expectancy has changed over time. The chart below shows male and female life expectancy at the time of birth in the US between 1790 until 2014. Two distinct features stand out.

First, العاب زوجية there is an upward trend. 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.

Second, there's a widening gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used to be very small however it increased dramatically during the last century.

Using the option 'Change country' on the chart, you are able to check that these two points are applicable to other countries that have available information: Sweden, France and the UK.