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 are more likely to live longer than men? And why the advantage has grown over time? The evidence is sketchy and we're left with only partial solutions. We are aware that behavioral, biological and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women are healthier than men; but we don't know exactly what the contribution of each factor افضل شامبو وبلسم is.

We know that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. However it is not due to the fact that certain 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. Others are more complex. 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, all countries are above the diagonal parity line , this means that in all countries a newborn girl can expect to live longer than a newborn boy.1

It is interesting to note that while the female advantage exists in all countries, country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women are 10 years older than men, while in Bhutan the gap is less than half each year.

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The female advantage in life expectancy was less in rich countries that it is today.
Let's examine the way that female advantages in life expectancy has changed over time. The next chart compares male and female life expectancies when they were born in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two aspects stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men and women in America have longer lives than they were 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is widening: While the female advantage in life expectancy used to be very small, it has increased substantially with time.

You can confirm that these points are also applicable to other countries with data by selecting the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.