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 is the reason women live longer than men? And how does this benefit increase in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we're left with only partial solutions. We know that behavioral, biological and environmental factors all play a role in the fact that women live longer than men; however, we aren't sure how significant the impact of each factor is.

Independently of the exact weight, we know that at least part of the reason women live longer than men and not previously, is to relate to the fact that some important non-biological aspects have changed. What are these changing factors? 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 all countries are above the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl from every country could expect to live longer than her younger brother.

The chart above shows that although the female advantage exists in all countries, صبغ الشعر بالاسود global differences are significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. 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 the richer countries that it is today.
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancies at the time of birth in the US in the years 1790 until 2014. Two points stand out.

There is an upward trend. and women in the US have a much longer life span longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is a widening gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used be very small, but it grew substantially in the past century.

If you select the option "Change country in the chart, you will be able to determine if these two points are also applicable to other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.