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. What's the reason women are more likely to live longer than men? And how is this difference growing over time? The evidence is sketchy and we're left with only limited answers. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral and environmental variables which play a significant role in women's longevity more than males, we aren't sure what percentage each factor plays in.

In spite of the amount, we can say that a large portion of the reason why women live longer than men and not in the past, is to be due to the fact that several important non-biological aspects have changed. What are these changing factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Other 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, كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور 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 over the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl in all countries can expect to live longer than her brothers.

This graph shows that while there is a female advantage in all countries, the differences across countries are often significant. In Russia women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan, the difference is less that half a year.

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In countries with high incomes, the female advantage in longevity was not as great.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below shows gender-based and female-specific life expectancy when they were born in the US during the period 1790 to 2014. Two areas stand out.

First, there's an upward trend. Men as well as women in the US live a lot, much longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is increasing: While the female advantage in life expectancy used to be tiny but it has risen significantly over time.

You can check if the points you've listed are applicable to other countries with information by clicking on the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.