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. Why do women live longer than men and how is this difference growing over time? The evidence isn't conclusive and we're left with only some answers. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women live longer than men; but we don't know exactly how much the influence to each of these variables is.

We know that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. However this isn't because of certain non-biological aspects have changed. These are the factors that 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 women. As you can see, all countries are above the diagonal parity line - it means that in all nations baby girls can expect to live longer than a new boy.1

This chart shows that, even though women enjoy an advantage in all countries, علامات الحمل بولد the differences across countries can be significant. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than men, while in Bhutan the difference is less than half a year.

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In rich countries the female advantage in longevity was smaller
Let's examine how the gender advantage in longevity has changed over time. The next chart plots the life expectancy of males and females when they were born in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two distinct features stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men as well as women in the US have a much longer life span longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is increasing: While the female advantage in terms of life expectancy was quite small but it has risen significantly with time.

Using the option 'Change country by country' in the chart, you will be able to determine if these two points are applicable to the other countries with available data: علامات الحمل بولد Sweden, France and the UK.