Why Do 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 have a longer life span than men? And why has this advantage gotten larger over time? The evidence is limited and we're left with only some solutions. We know that behavioral, biological and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women are healthier than men; but we don't know exactly how significant the impact to each of these variables is.

Independently of the exact number of pounds, we know that at least part of the reason women live longer than men do today however not as in the past, has to relate to the fact that certain important non-biological aspects have changed. These variables are evolving. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, العاب زوجية [Learn Additional] 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. We can see that all countries are above the diagonal parity line - this means that in all countries that a baby girl can be expected to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart is interesting in that it shows that, while the advantage for women exists everywhere, العاب زوجية the difference between countries is huge. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the difference is less than half one year.

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In the richer countries, the women's advantage in longevity was smaller
Let's now look at how the female advantage in longevity has changed with time. The following chart shows the gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at birth in the US between 1790 until 2014. Two aspects stand out.

First, there is an upward trend: Men and women in the US have a much longer life span longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is a widening gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used to be very modest however, it has increased significantly during the last century.

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