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's the reason women have a longer life span than men? And why has this advantage gotten larger in the past? The evidence isn't conclusive and we only have incomplete solutions. Although we know that there are behavioral, biological, and environmental factors which all play a part in women's longevity more than males, we aren't sure how much each factor contributes.

We are aware that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. However, this is not because of certain non-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, علامات الحمل بولد 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 علامات الحمل بولد women. It is clear that every country is above the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl from every country could be expected to live for longer than her brothers.

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

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The advantage women had in terms of life expectancy was lower in countries with higher incomes that it is today.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The chart below shows men and women's life expectancies at birth in the US from 1790-2014. Two specific points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men and women living in America are living longer than they were 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is growing: Although the female advantage in life expectancy was once extremely small, it has increased substantially over time.

You can check if these are applicable to other countries that have information by clicking on the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.