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. Why do women live much longer than men today, and why is this difference growing over time? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to draw an absolute conclusion. We know there are biological, psychological and environmental variables that play an integral role in women's longevity more than males, we aren't sure how much each one contributes.

We know that women are living longer than males, regardless of weight. However this isn't because of certain non-biological aspects have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are other issues that are more intricate. 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 اضيق وضعية للجماع 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 line of parity. This implies that a baby girl from any country can expect to live longer than her brothers.

The chart below shows that although women have an advantage across all countries, differences between countries can be substantial. In Russia, women live 10 years more than males. In Bhutan the gap is less than half a calendar year.

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In countries with high incomes, the advantage of women in longevity was smaller
Let's examine how the gender advantage in life expectancy has changed over time. The next chart compares male and female life expectancy at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two things stand out.

There is an upward trend. Both genders living in America are living longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is growing: Although the advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was quite small It has significantly increased with time.

If you select the option "Change country by country' in the chart, verify that these two points are also applicable to other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.