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 reason why women are more likely to live longer than men? And how has this advantage gotten larger as time passes? There isn't much evidence and we're only able to provide limited answers. While we are aware that there are biological, psychological and environmental variables that all play a role in women's longevity more than males, it isn't clear how much each factor contributes.

We are aware that women live longer than men, صبغ الشعر بالاسود regardless of their weight. However it is not because of certain 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. It is clear that every country is over the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl from every country could anticipate to live longer than her older brother.

This chart illustrates that, even though women enjoy an advantage across all countries, differences between countries are often significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of less that half a year.

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In countries with high incomes, the longevity advantage for women used to be smaller
Let's look at how the gender advantage in terms of longevity has changed over time. The following chart shows the men and women's life expectancies at the time of birth in the US in the years 1790 to 2014. Two specific points stand out.

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.

Second, there's a widening gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used to be very small however, it has increased significantly in the past century.

When you click on the option "Change country' on the chart, determine if these two points are also applicable to other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.