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 how is this difference growing in the past? The evidence is limited and we have only partial solutions. Although we know that there are biological, psychological, and environmental factors which play a significant role in women's longevity more than males, we aren't sure what percentage each factor plays in.

We know that women are living longer than males, regardless of weight. But, this is not because of certain non-biological factors have changed. These variables are evolving. 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 صبغ الشعر بالاسود men and women. We can see that all countries are above the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl in every country can be expected to live for صبغ الشعر بالاسود longer than her younger brother.

This chart illustrates that, even though women enjoy an advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries can be significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of just half a year.

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The female advantage in life expectancy was smaller in the richer countries than it is now.
Let's now look at how the advantage of women in terms of longevity has changed over time. The following chart shows male and female life expectancies at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two things stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Both genders in America live longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is an ever-widening gap: female advantage in life expectancy used to be quite small however it increased dramatically over the last century.

You can verify that these principles are also applicable to other countries with data by selecting the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.