Why Are Women Living 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? Why has this advantage gotten larger over time? There is only limited evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to support an absolute conclusion. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women have longer lives than men, but we don't know exactly what the contribution of each of these factors is.

We are aware that women live longer than men, regardless of their weight. But, this is not due to the fact that certain biological or non-biological factors have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others that are more intricate. 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 diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl in all countries can be expected to live for longer than her younger brother.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that while the female advantage is present everywhere, country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the difference is only half a year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was much lower in countries with higher incomes than it is today.
Let's look at how the advantage of women in longevity has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancies at birth in the US between 1790 to 2014. Two distinct features stand out.

There is an upward trend. Women and men in the United States live longer than they were a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is an ever-widening gap: زيوت تطويل الشعر (head to Glorynote) female advantage in terms of life expectancy used to be extremely small but it increased substantially over the course of the last century.

By selecting 'Change Country' on the chart, you are able to confirm that the two points are applicable to the other countries having available information: Sweden, France and the UK.