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 is the reason women live longer than men? Why is this difference growing as time passes? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't strong enough to make a definitive conclusion. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all play a role in the fact that women are healthier than men; but we don't know exactly how much the influence of each factor is.

We know that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. However this is not due to the fact that certain non-biological factors have changed. What are these new factors? 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, 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 that a baby girl can be expected to live for longer than a new boy.1

The chart below shows that although women have an advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries could be significant. In Russia, women live 10 years more than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of less than half a calendar year.

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In wealthy countries, the women's advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancy at the time of birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

First, there's 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.

And second, there is an increase in the gap between men and اوضاع الجماع women: female advantage in terms of life expectancy used to be quite small, but it grew substantially in the past century.

Using the option 'Change country in the chart, you can verify that these two points are applicable to other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.