Why Do Women Have Longer Lives 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 much longer than men today and how is this difference growing in the past? The evidence isn't conclusive and we're left with only some solutions. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral and environmental factors that all play a role in the longevity of women over males, we aren't sure the extent to which each factor plays a role.

We are aware that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. However it is not due to the fact that certain non-biological factors have changed. What are these changing factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Some 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, افضل كريم للشعر 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. As you can see, every country is above the diagonal parity line ; it means that in all nations the newborn girl is likely to live longer than a newborn boy.1

Interestingly, this chart shows that although the female advantage is present everywhere, global differences are significant. In Russia, women live 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of just half a year.

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In wealthy countries, the advantage of women in longevity was not as great.
Let's look at the way that female advantages in life expectancy has changed over time. The following chart shows the male and female lifespans when they were born in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Women and men living in America are living longer than they were a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, there's a widening gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used be very modest, but it grew substantially over the course of the last century.

It is possible to verify that these points are also applicable to other countries that have data by selecting the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.