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's the main reason women live longer than men? Why has this advantage gotten larger as time passes? There isn't much evidence and we're only able to provide some solutions. We know there are behavioral, biological as well as environmental factors that all play a role in women's longevity more than males, it isn't clear how much each factor contributes.

We are aware that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. However 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 we can see, all countries are above the diagonal line of parity - which means that in every country a newborn girl can expect to live for longer than a new boy.1

This chart illustrates that, even though women enjoy an advantage in all countries, the differences across countries can be substantial. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of only half a year.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was smaller in countries with higher incomes than it is today.
Let's examine how the gender advantage in life expectancy has changed over time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two things stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men and ماذا يحدث بين الزوجين في الحمام بالصور women in the US live much, much longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

And second, there is an ever-widening gap: female advantage in terms of life expectancy used to be very small but it increased substantially over the course of the last century.

Using the option 'Change country' on the chart, you will be able to confirm that the two points are also applicable to the other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.