Why 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 is the reason women have a longer life span than men? And how has this advantage gotten larger over time? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to draw a definitive conclusion. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological and environmental variables that play an integral role in women's longevity more than males, اضيق وضعية للجماع we aren't sure how much each factor contributes.

We have learned that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. However it is not because of certain biological factors have changed. The factors changing are numerous. 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. We can see that all countries are over the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl from any country can expect to live longer than her older brother.

This chart shows that, although women have an advantage in all countries, the differences across countries are often significant. In Russia women are 10 years older than men. In Bhutan the difference is less than half one year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was less in rich countries than it is now.
Let's now look at how the advantage of women in terms of longevity has changed over time. The next chart compares the male and female lifespans at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two distinct features stand out.

There is an upward trend. Women and men 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 terms of life expectancy was extremely small but it has risen significantly over time.

It is possible to verify that these are applicable to other countries with information by clicking on the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, اضيق وضعية للجماع France, and Sweden.