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 main reason women live longer than men? What is the reason the advantage has grown as time passes? The evidence is limited and we only have incomplete answers. While we are aware that there are biological, psychological and environmental variables that play an integral role in women's longevity more than males, it isn't clear the extent to which each factor plays a role.

We have learned that women live longer than men, regardless of their weight. But it is not due to the fact that certain non-biological factors have changed. The factors changing are numerous. 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, 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. As you can see, every country is above the diagonal parity line ; which means that in every country a newborn girl can expect to live for longer than a new boy.1

It is interesting to note that while the female advantage exists across all countries, the global differences are significant. In Russia, women live 10 years more than males. In Bhutan, the difference is less that half a year.

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In countries with high incomes, the advantage of women in longevity was not as great.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancies at birth in the US in the years 1790 until 2014. Two points stand out.

The first is that 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 a widening gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used be quite small however, it has increased significantly over the last century.

You can verify that these principles are also applicable to other countries that have data by clicking the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, ماذا يحدث بين الزوجين في الحمام بالصور France, and Sweden.