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 women live longer than men? What is the reason has this advantage gotten larger in the past? The evidence isn't conclusive and we have only some answers. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women are healthier than men; however, we aren't sure how significant the impact of each factor is.

We are aware that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. But this is not due to the fact that certain 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. Certain 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 line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl from every country could be expected to live for longer than her older brother.

This graph shows that although women have an advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries can be significant. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the gap is just half a year.

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In countries with high incomes, the female advantage in longevity used to be smaller
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The next chart plots the male and female lifespans at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

First, there's an upward trend. as well as women in the US are living much, much longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is growing: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy used to be very small however, it has grown significantly with time.

Using the option 'Change country' on the chart, you are able to confirm that the two points are also applicable to other countries with available data: Sweden, France and تحاميل مهبلية (go!!) the UK.