Why Women Live 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 makes women live longer than men in the present, and why have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? There is only limited evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to support an informed conclusion. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological and environmental factors that all play a role in women living longer than males, it isn't clear how much each factor contributes.

In spite of the precise amount, we can say that a large portion of the reason why women live so much longer than men but not in the past, has to have to do with the fact that a number of key non-biological factors have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others 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 كيفية ممارسة العلاقة الزوجية فى الاسلام men and women. We can see that all countries are above the diagonal parity line , it means that in all nations a newborn girl can expect to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart shows that, although women have an advantage across all countries, differences between countries can be substantial. In Russia women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan the difference is less that half a year.

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The female advantage in terms of life expectancy was lower in the richer countries that it is today.
Let's look at how the female advantage in terms of longevity has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancies at the time of birth in the US in the years 1790 to 2014. Two distinct features stand out.

There is an upward trend: Men as well as women in the US live a lot, much longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is getting wider: Although the female advantage in life expectancy was once quite small, it has increased substantially over time.

You can verify that the points you've listed are applicable to other countries with information by clicking on the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.