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. What makes women live more than men do today, and why has this advantage increased in the past? We only have partial evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to draw an unambiguous conclusion. Although we know that there are behavioral, biological and environmental factors which all play a part in the longevity of women over males, it isn't clear how much each one contributes.

We have learned that women live longer than men, regardless of weight. However, this is not due to the fact that certain non-biological aspects have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others that are more intricate. 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, كيفية ممارسة العلاقة الزوجية فى الاسلام 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 the newborn girl is likely to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart shows that, even though women enjoy an advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries are often significant. In Russia, women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan, the difference is less than half a calendar year.

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The advantage for women in life expectancy was much lower in developed countries than it is now.
Let's now look at how the advantage of women in life expectancy has changed over time. The following chart shows the gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at the birth in the US between 1790 to 2014. Two points stand out.

There is an upward trend. Women and men in the United States live longer than they used to 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is widening: While the female advantage in life expectancy was tiny, it has increased substantially over time.

By selecting 'Change Country' on the chart, كيفية ممارسة العلاقة الزوجية فى الاسلام confirm that the two points apply to other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.