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 is the reason women live longer than men? And why does this benefit increase as time passes? We only have a few clues and the evidence is not sufficient to draw a definitive conclusion. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women are healthier than men; however, we aren't sure how strong the relative contribution of each of these factors is.

We are aware that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. But this is not due to the fact that certain non-biological aspects have changed. These variables are evolving. 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 diagonal parity line ; which means that in every country baby girls can expect to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart is interesting in that it shows that while the female advantage exists in all countries, difference between countries is huge. In Russia women are 10 years older than males; while in Bhutan the difference is less than half each year.

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In rich countries the women's advantage in longevity was not as great.
Let's now look at how the gender advantage in longevity has changed over time. The next chart compares the life expectancy of males and females at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two points stand out.

First, افضل شامبو وبلسم there is an upward trend: Men as well as women in the US live a lot, much longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

And second, افضل شامبو وبلسم there is a widening gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be very small but it increased substantially in the past century.

By selecting 'Change Country' on the chart, you are able to check that these two points also apply to the other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.