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 longer than men, and why is this difference growing over time? There isn't much evidence and we have only limited solutions. We know that behavioral, biological and environmental factors all play a role in the fact that women have longer life spans than men, however, we do not know how significant the impact to each of these variables is.

In spite of how much weight, we know that at least a portion of the reason why women live longer than men do today however not as in the past, is to be due to the fact that several significant non-biological elements have changed. What are these factors that have changed? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others 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 every country is above the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl from every country could be expected to live for longer than her younger brother.

This chart illustrates that, even though women enjoy an advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries can be significant. In Russia women have a longer life span than men, while in Bhutan the gap is less than half a year.

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In wealthy countries, the women's advantage in longevity was smaller
Let's now look at how the female advantage in life expectancy has changed over time. The chart below shows gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at birth in the US during the period 1790 to 2014. Two points stand تحاميل مهبلية out.

First, there is an upward trend. Women and men in America have longer lives than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is growing: Although the female advantage in terms of life expectancy was tiny however, it has grown significantly in the past.

By selecting 'Change Country in the chart, you can check that these two points are applicable to other countries that have available information: Sweden, France and the UK.