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 is the reason women are more likely to live longer than men? And why is this difference growing in the past? The evidence isn't conclusive and we only have partial solutions. We are aware that behavioral, biological and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women have longer life spans than men, however, we do not know how strong the relative contribution to each of these variables is.

We know that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. However it is not because of certain non-biological factors have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others that are more intricate. For اوضاع الجماع (this content) 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, اوضاع الجماع 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 line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl from every country could expect to live longer than her younger brother.

This chart illustrates that, while there is a female advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries could be significant. In Russia, women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan, the difference is just half a year.

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In rich countries the female advantage in longevity was not as great.
Let's now look at how the female advantage in longevity has changed with time. The next chart plots male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two areas stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men and women in America live longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is widening: While the female advantage in life expectancy used to be quite small however, it has grown significantly in the past.

You can check if these points are also applicable to other countries that have data by clicking on the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.