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 does this benefit increase over time? We only have partial evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to draw an absolute conclusion. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women live longer than men; however, we aren't sure how significant the impact of each one of these factors is.

We know that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. But it is not due to the fact that certain non-biological aspects have changed. These are the factors that are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Certain are more complicated. For زيوت تطويل الشعر 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 above the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl from any country can anticipate to live longer than her younger brother.

This chart shows that, while there is a female advantage everywhere, cross-country differences can be substantial. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the difference is just half a year.

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In countries with high incomes, the women's advantage in longevity was not as great.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart shows male and female life expectancies at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two things stand out.

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

The gap is increasing: While the female advantage in life expectancy was quite small but it has risen significantly with time.

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