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 longer than men and how has this advantage increased in the past? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to reach a definitive conclusion. We know there are biological, behavioral and environmental factors that play an integral role in the longevity of women over men, we do not know how much each factor contributes.

In spite of how much amount of weight, we are aware that at a minimum, the reason why women live so much longer than men in the present, but not previously, is to be due to the fact that some significant non-biological elements have changed. What are these factors that have changed? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, صبغ الشعر بالاسود like the fact that men smoke more often. Others 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, صبغ الشعر بالاسود 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. As you can see, all countries are above the diagonal parity line - which means that in every country the newborn girl is likely to live longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart is interesting in that it shows that, while the advantage for women exists everywhere, the global differences are significant. In Russia women are 10 years older than men; in Bhutan the gap is less than half each year.

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In countries with high incomes, the women's advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's look at the way that female advantages in terms of longevity has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at birth in the US from 1790 until 2014. Two areas stand out.

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

There is an increase in the gap between men and women: female advantage in life expectancy used be extremely small however it increased dramatically over the last century.

Using the option 'Change country in the chart, you are able to determine if these two points apply to other countries that have available information: Sweden, France and the UK.