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 have a longer life span than men? And why has this advantage gotten larger in the past? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn't strong enough to make an informed conclusion. While we are aware that there are biological, psychological and environmental variables which play a significant role in women's longevity more than males, we aren't sure what percentage each factor plays in.

In spite of the amount of weight, we are aware that at least a portion of the reason women live so much longer than men do today and not in the past, is to have to do with the fact that some key non-biological factors have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others that are more intricate. 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 every country is above the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl in all countries can be expected to live for longer than her younger brother.

This chart shows that, while there is a female advantage in all countries, the differences across countries could be significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men, while in Bhutan the gap is less than half a year.

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In the richer countries, the longevity advantage for women was smaller
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The following chart shows male and female life expectancy at birth in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two things stand تحاميل مهبلية out.

First, there's an upward trend: Men and women in the US live much, much longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is a widening gap: تحاميل مهبلية The female advantage in life expectancy used to be very small however it increased dramatically over the course of the last century.

It is possible to verify that these points are also applicable to other countries with data by clicking the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.