Why Do Women Have Longer Lives 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 why women live longer than men? Why does this benefit increase as time passes? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to reach an absolute conclusion. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women live longer than men; but we don't know exactly how much the influence of each of these factors is.

It is known that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. But this is not because of certain biological or non-biological factors have changed. These variables are evolving. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Certain 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. We can see that every country is above the diagonal line of parity - this means in all countries baby girls can expect to live longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart illustrates that, while there is a female advantage everywhere, cross-country differences can be significant. In Russia women are 10 years older than males; while in Bhutan the difference is just half an hour.

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The advantage for women in life expectancy was smaller in the richer countries than it is now.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The chart below shows gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at the birth in the US from 1790 until 2014. Two distinct features stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men as well as women in the US have a much longer life span longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is widening: While the advantage of women in life expectancy was very small, it has increased substantially over time.

By selecting 'Change Country' on the chart, you are able to confirm that the two points are also applicable to the other countries with available information: Sweden, افضل كريم للشعر France and the UK.