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? What is the reason the advantage has grown as time passes? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to draw an absolute conclusion. We are aware that behavioral, biological and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women are healthier than men; however, we do not know what the contribution of each of these factors is.

In spite of the weight, we know that at least part of the reason women live so much longer than men today, but not in the past, has to have to do with the fact that certain significant non-biological elements have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Some 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 women. We can see that every country is above the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl from any country can expect to live longer than her brother.

The chart above shows that, while the advantage for women is present everywhere, global differences are significant. In Russia women have a longer life span than men. In Bhutan the difference is just half one year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was smaller in countries with higher incomes that it is today.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below illustrates the gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at birth in the US in the years 1790 until 2014. Two things stand out.

There is an upward trend. Women and men living in America are living longer than they were a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is increasing: While the advantage of women in life expectancy used to be quite small It has significantly increased with time.

By selecting 'Change Country' on the chart, you can verify that these two points are applicable to the other countries having available information: Sweden, France and زيوت تطويل الشعر the UK.