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 makes women live much longer than men today, and why has this advantage increased in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we have only incomplete solutions. While we are aware that there are biological, psychological and environmental variables which play a significant role in the longevity of women over men, we do not know what percentage each factor plays in.

We are aware that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. But, this is not due to the fact that certain biological factors have changed. What are the factors that are changing? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Certain 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 men and women. It is clear that all countries are above the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl in all countries can be expected to live for longer than her older brother.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that although the female advantage exists in all countries, cross-country differences are large. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men, while in Bhutan the difference is less than half one year.

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In rich countries the longevity advantage for women was not as great.
Let's examine how the female advantage in longevity has changed with time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US from 1790-2014. Two areas stand out.

First, there's an upward trend. Men and women in the US live much, much longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is increasing: While the advantage of women in life expectancy was once quite small, it has increased substantially over time.

Using the option 'Change country by country' in the chart, you can confirm that the two points also apply to the other countries having available data: Sweden, زيوت تطويل الشعر France and the UK.