Why Do Women Have Longer Lives 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 live longer than men? And how is this difference growing in the past? The evidence is limited and we only have incomplete answers. Although we know that there are behavioral, biological and environmental factors that all play a role in the longevity of women over males, we aren't sure how much each one contributes.

It is known that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. However this isn't due to the fact that 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. Some are more complex. 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 افضل شامبو وبلسم women. It is clear that every country is over the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl from every country could be expected to live for longer than her older brother.

This chart illustrates that, although women have an advantage in all countries, the differences across countries could be significant. In Russia, women live 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of less that half a year.

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In wealthy countries, the longevity advantage for women used to be smaller
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The following chart shows male and female life expectancy at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

There is an upward trend. Men and women in America live longer than they did a century 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 terms of life expectancy used to be very modest, but it grew substantially over the last century.

When you click on the option "Change country by country' in the chart, you are able to confirm that the two points are applicable to the other countries having available data: Sweden, France and the UK.