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's the reason women are more likely to live longer than men? Why has this advantage gotten larger over time? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to reach an absolute conclusion. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women have longer lives than men, but we don't know exactly how much the influence to each of these variables is.

We have learned that women live longer than men, regardless of weight. However this isn't because of certain biological factors have changed. These factors are changing. 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, كيفية ممارسة العلاقة الزوجية فى الاسلام 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 - this means that in all countries baby girls can expect to live longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart illustrates that, even though women enjoy an advantage in all countries, the differences across countries can be significant. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan, the difference is just half a year.

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In rich countries the women's advantage in longevity was smaller
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The following chart shows male and female life expectancy at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two distinct points stand out.

There is an upward trend. Both men and women in the US live much, much longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is an increasing gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be extremely small but it increased substantially in the past century.

By selecting 'Change Country from the chart, you will be able to confirm that the two points are applicable to the other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.