Why Are Women Living 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 why women live longer than men? What is the reason the advantage has grown as time passes? The evidence is limited and we have only partial answers. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women have longer lives than men, However, we're not sure how much the influence of each one of these factors is.

We know that women live longer than men, regardless of weight. But it is not because of certain non-biological factors have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, كيفية ممارسة العلاقة الزوجية فى الاسلام like the fact that men smoke more often. Other are more complicated. For example, كيفية ممارسة العلاقة الزوجية فى الاسلام 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. It is clear that all countries are over the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl from every country could anticipate to live longer than her older brother.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that although the female advantage exists in all countries, difference between countries is huge. In Russia women have a longer life span than males; while in Bhutan the gap is just half each year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was smaller in the richer countries than it is now.
Let's now look at how the advantage of women in terms of longevity has changed over time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancies when they were born in the US in the years 1790-2014. Two distinct features stand out.

There is an upward trend. Women and men in the United States live 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 female advantage in life expectancy was once extremely small, it has increased substantially with time.

You can confirm that these points are also applicable to other countries that have information by clicking on the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.