Why Are Women Living 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 main reason women are more likely to live longer than men? What is the reason is this difference growing as time passes? There isn't much evidence and we only have limited answers. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women have longer life spans than men, however, we aren't sure what the contribution of each one of these factors is.

We know that women live longer than men, regardless of weight. But this isn't because of certain non-biological aspects have changed. What are the factors that are changing? Some are well known and اضيق وضعية للجماع relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Certain 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 over the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl in every country can expect to live longer than her brother.

This graph shows that even though women enjoy an advantage everywhere, cross-country differences can be substantial. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of less that half a year.

__S.17__
__S.19__
In wealthy countries, the women's advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's look at the way that female advantages in terms of longevity has changed over time. The following chart shows male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two areas stand out.

There is an upward trend. Men and women 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.

Second, the gap is getting wider: Although the female advantage in life expectancy used to be extremely small, it has increased substantially over time.

By selecting 'Change Country from the chart, you will be able to confirm that the two points are applicable to the other countries having available information: Sweden, France and the UK.