Why 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. Why do women live so much longer than men today, and why is this difference growing over time? There isn't much evidence and we're left with only incomplete answers. Although we know that there are biological, psychological and environmental factors that play an integral role in women who live longer than males, it isn't clear the extent to which each factor plays a role.

We have learned that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. But, this is not due to the fact that certain biological factors have changed. What are these new factors? 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 women. We can see that every country is above the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl from every country could anticipate to live longer than her brothers.

This graph shows that although women have an advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries can be significant. In Russia women are 10 years older than men; in Bhutan the difference is just half one year.

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In wealthy countries, the female advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The next chart compares the male and female lifespans at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two things stand out.

First, اوضاع الجماع there's an upward trend. and women in the US are living much, much longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

And second, there is a widening gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used to be very modest, اوضاع الجماع but it grew substantially over the last century.

If you select the option "Change country from the chart, determine if these two points also apply to the other countries having available information: Sweden, France and the UK.