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 much longer than men today and why has this advantage increased in the past? There isn't much evidence and we're only able to provide partial solutions. We know there are biological, behavioral, and environmental factors that play an integral role in the longevity of women over males, it isn't clear how much each one contributes.

In spite of the amount, we can say that at least part of the reason women live so much longer than men however not as previously, is to relate to the fact that a number of key non-biological factors have changed. These variables are evolving. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, 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, 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 كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور (visit the following site) women. As we can see, all countries are above the diagonal line of parity - which means that in every country a newborn girl can expect to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart shows that, although there is a women's advantage in all countries, the differences across countries could be significant. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than men; in Bhutan the difference is just half one year.

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In wealthy countries, the advantage of women in longevity was smaller
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart compares male and female life expectancy at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two points stand out.

First, there's an upward trend: Men and women in the US are living much, much 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 growing: Although the female advantage in terms of life expectancy was very small It has significantly increased in the past.

It is possible to verify that these are applicable to other countries that have information by clicking on the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.