Why Do 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 is this difference growing in the past? We only have partial evidence and the evidence is not strong enough to make an unambiguous conclusion. We are aware that behavioral, اضيق وضعية للجماع biological and environmental factors all play a role in the fact that women have longer lives than men, However, we're not sure how significant the impact to each of these variables is.

Independently of the exact amount of weight, we are aware that at least a portion of the reason why women live longer than men and not previously, has to relate to the fact that some significant non-biological elements have changed. What are these new factors? 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 line of parity - this means that in all countries baby girls can expect to live for longer than a new boy.1

Interestingly, this chart shows that, while the advantage for women exists in all countries, global differences are significant. In Russia women have a longer life span than males; while in Bhutan the gap is just half an hour.

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In wealthy countries, the longevity advantage for women was not as great.
Let's examine how the advantage of women in longevity has changed over time. The next chart plots the life expectancy of males and females at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two areas stand out.

First, 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.

And second, there is an increasing gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used to be very modest however, it has increased significantly in the past century.

If you select the option "Change country' on the chart, verify that these two points apply to other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.