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 is the reason women live much longer than men today, and why has this advantage increased over time? The evidence is sketchy and we're left with only partial solutions. We know there are biological, psychological and environmental factors that all play a role in the longevity of women over men, we do not know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

It is known that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. However it is not due to the fact that 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. 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, 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 ماذا يحدث بين الزوجين في الحمام بالصور women. It is clear that all countries are over the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl from every country could be expected to live for longer than her older brother.

This graph shows that while there is a female advantage everywhere, cross-country differences can be significant. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than men; in Bhutan the difference is less than half each year.

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In wealthy countries, the longevity advantage for women used to be smaller
Let's examine how the advantage of women in longevity has changed with time. The following chart shows the gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at birth in the US during the period 1790 to 2014. Two specific points stand out.

First, there's an upward trend. 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.

The second is that there is an ever-widening gap: female advantage in life expectancy used to be very small but it increased substantially during the last century.

You can confirm that the points you've listed are applicable to other countries that have data by clicking the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.