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 is the reason women live more than men do today and why have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? We have only a small amount of evidence and the evidence is not strong enough to make an unambiguous conclusion. Although we know that there are behavioral, biological and environmental factors which play a significant role in women living longer than males, we aren't sure the extent to which each factor plays a role.

We are aware that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. However, this is not because of certain 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. 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 اضيق وضعية للجماع men and women. It is clear that every country is above the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl in all countries can expect to live longer than her brother.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that while the female advantage exists everywhere, the difference between countries is huge. In Russia women live 10 years more than males. In Bhutan the gap is just half a year.

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In the richer countries, the female advantage in longevity was smaller
We will now examine how the gender advantage in life expectancy has changed over time. The next chart compares the life expectancy of males and females at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two distinct points stand اضيق وضعية للجماع out.

There is an upward trend: Men as well as 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.

Second, the gap is getting wider: Although the female advantage in life expectancy was once very small It has significantly increased over time.

You can check if these principles are also applicable to other countries with data by selecting the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.