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 makes women live longer than men, and why does this benefit increase in the past? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to support an unambiguous conclusion. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological and environmental variables that play an integral role in the longevity of women over males, we aren't sure how much each one contributes.

In spite of the precise amount of weight, we are aware that at least a portion of the reason women live longer than men but not in the past, has to relate to the fact that a number of important non-biological aspects have changed. What are these new factors? 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, كيفية ممارسة العلاقة الزوجية فى الاسلام 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 above the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl in all countries can expect to live longer than her brothers.

This graph shows that although women have an advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries can be significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than males; while in Bhutan the gap is less than half an hour.

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In rich countries the women's advantage in longevity was not as great.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage 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 aspects stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Both men and women in the US live much, much longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is getting wider: Although the female advantage in life expectancy was extremely small but it has risen significantly with time.

When you click on the option "Change country' on the chart, you can verify that these two points are applicable to other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.