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 have a longer life span than men? And how does this benefit increase as time passes? The evidence is sketchy and we're only able to provide limited answers. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all play a role in the fact that women have longer lives than men, However, we're not sure how strong the relative contribution of each one of these factors is.

In spite of how much amount, we can say that at least a portion of the reason why women live so much longer than men today however not as in the past, is to have to do with the fact that certain fundamental non-biological factors have changed. These are the factors that are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Some are more complex. 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 be expected to live for longer than her brother.

This chart shows that, while there is a female advantage across all countries, differences between countries can be significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the gap is less that half a year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was much lower in the richer countries that it is today.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart shows the male and كيفية ممارسة العلاقة الزوجية فى الاسلام female lifespans at birth in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two specific points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men and women in America have longer lives than they used to a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The second is that there is an increasing gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used to be very small but it increased substantially over the course of the last century.

It is possible to verify that these are applicable to other countries with information by clicking on the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.