Why 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 in the present and why has this advantage increased over time? There isn't much evidence and we're left with only some answers. We know that behavioral, biological and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women live longer than men; however, we aren't sure how strong the relative contribution of each one of these factors is.

We have learned that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. However this isn't due to the fact that certain non-biological factors have changed. What are the factors that are changing? 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. It is clear that every country is above the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl in every country can expect to live longer than her brother.

It is interesting to note that while the female advantage is present everywhere, cross-country differences are large. In Russia women live 10 years more than males. In Bhutan the gap is just half a year.

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In wealthy countries, the female advantage in longevity was not as great.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancies at the birth in the US from 1790-2014. Two things stand out.

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

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

You can check if the points you've listed 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.