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's the reason women live longer than men? Why is this difference growing as time passes? The evidence is sketchy and we only have partial solutions. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological and environmental factors which play a significant role in the longevity of women over males, it isn't clear the extent to which each factor plays a role.

Independently of the exact weight, we know that at a minimum, the reason why women live longer than men do today, but not previously, has to do with the fact that certain key non-biological factors have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Other 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, تحاميل مهبلية 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. We can see that all countries are over the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl from every country could be expected to live for longer than her younger brother.

The chart above shows that the advantage of women is present everywhere, cross-country differences are large. In Russia, women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of less than half a calendar year.

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In wealthy countries, the female advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's examine how the female advantage in life expectancy has changed over time. The next chart plots male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two distinct features stand out.

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 widening: While the advantage of women in life expectancy used to be tiny, it has increased substantially in the past.

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