Why Are Women Living 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. What is the reason women live longer than men? Why does this benefit increase over time? There is only limited evidence and the evidence is not strong enough to make a definitive conclusion. Although we know that there are biological, psychological and environmental variables which play a significant role in women who live longer than men, we don't know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

We have learned that women are living longer than males, regardless of weight. However it is not due to the fact that certain non-biological factors have changed. These are the factors that are changing. Some are well known and افضل شامبو وبلسم 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 men and women. As we can see, every country is above the diagonal parity line - this means in all countries a newborn girl can expect to live for longer than a new boy.1

This chart illustrates that, although women have an advantage across all countries, differences between countries could be significant. In Russia women have a longer life span than males; while in Bhutan the difference is less than half a year.

__S.17__
__S.19__
In countries with high incomes, the women's advantage in longevity was not as great.
Let's now look at the way that female advantages in life expectancy has changed over time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancy at birth in the US during the period 1790 to 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

First, there's an upward trend: Men as well as women in the US have a much longer life span 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 very small It has significantly increased over time.

If you select the option "Change country in the chart, verify that these two points also apply to other countries that have available data: Sweden, France and the UK.