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 main reason women live longer than men? And why has this advantage gotten larger in the past? The evidence isn't conclusive and we're left with only partial answers. We know that behavioral, biological and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women are healthier than men; however, we do not know how strong the relative contribution to each of these variables is.

In spite of the amount, we can say that at a minimum, the reason women live longer than men do today but not in the past, has to do with the fact that certain key non-biological factors have changed. These factors are changing. 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. As you can see, all countries are above the diagonal parity line - which means that in every country the newborn girl is likely to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

This graph shows that even though women enjoy an advantage everywhere, cross-country differences can be significant. In Russia, women live for 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of just half a year.

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The female advantage in terms of life expectancy was lower in the richer countries than it is now.
Let's now look at how the female advantage in longevity has changed with time. The following chart shows male and اوضاع الجماع female life expectancy when they were born in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two things stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men and women in America have longer lives than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is increasing: While the female advantage in terms of life expectancy was very small however, it has grown significantly with time.

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