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 have a longer life span than men? Why is this difference growing as time passes? We only have a few clues and the evidence isn't sufficient to draw an informed conclusion. Although we know that there are behavioral, biological and environmental factors which all play a part in women's longevity more than men, we don't know how much each one contributes.

In spite of the precise weight, we know that a large portion of the reason women live longer than men and not previously, is to do with the fact that some key 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 any country can be expected to live for longer than her brothers.

This graph shows that although there is a women's advantage across all countries, differences between countries are often significant. In Russia, women live for 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of less than half a calendar year.

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The female advantage in life expectancy was less in countries with higher incomes that it is today.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The next chart shows the life expectancy of males and females at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and تحاميل مهبلية 2014. Two specific points stand out.

First, there's an upward trend. 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.

Second, the gap is widening: While the advantage of women in life expectancy used to be quite small but it has risen significantly over time.

If you select the option "Change country by country' in the chart, verify that these two points also apply to the other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.