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. Why do women live longer than men and how is this difference growing in the past? The evidence is limited and we're left with only limited answers. While we are aware that there are biological, psychological and اضيق وضعية للجماع environmental variables which all play a part in women living longer than men, we don't know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

We are aware that women are living longer than males, regardless of weight. But, this is not due to the fact that certain biological factors have changed. What are these factors that have changed? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others that are more intricate. 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. As you can see, every country is above the diagonal line of parity - which means that in every country baby girls can expect to live longer than a new boy.1

Interestingly, this chart shows that, while the advantage for women exists in all countries, cross-country differences are large. In Russia women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of less than half a calendar year.

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In the richer countries, the women's advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's now look at how the advantage of women in longevity has changed with time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancies at the birth in the US in the years 1790 to 2014. Two points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Both genders in America have longer lives than they used to a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, there's an increasing gap: اضيق وضعية للجماع The female advantage in life expectancy used be very small however, it has increased significantly in the past century.

When you click on the option "Change country by country' in the chart, check that these two points also apply to other countries that have available information: Sweden, France and the UK.