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. Why do women live so longer than men, and why does this benefit increase over time? The evidence is sketchy and we only have partial answers. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological and environmental variables which all play a part in women living longer than men, we do not know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

It is known that women live longer than men, regardless of weight. But, this is not because of certain biological factors have changed. These variables are evolving. 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 ماذا يحدث بين الزوجين في الحمام بالصور men and women. It is clear that every country is over the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl in every country can expect to live longer than her brother.

The chart below shows that although women have an advantage everywhere, cross-country differences are often significant. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan, the difference is less that half a year.

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The female advantage in terms of life expectancy was lower in rich countries that it is today.
Let's look at the way that female advantages in longevity has changed over time. The next chart plots the life expectancy of males and females at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two areas 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.

Second, the gap is growing: Although the advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was very small but it has risen significantly with time.

Using the option 'Change country by country' in the chart, you can confirm that the two points apply to the other countries having available data: Sweden, France and the UK.