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 reason women are more likely to live longer than men? Why the advantage has grown over time? The evidence isn't conclusive and we're left with only some solutions. While we are aware that there are biological, افضل شامبو وبلسم behavioral as well as environmental factors that play an integral role in women's longevity more than men, we do not know how much each one contributes.

Independently of the exact weight, we know that at a minimum, the reason why women live so much longer than men but not in the past, is to do with the fact that a number of fundamental non-biological factors have changed. What are these new factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are other issues 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. We can see that every country is over the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl from every country could anticipate to live longer than her older brother.

It is interesting to note that although the female advantage exists everywhere, the global differences are significant. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of just half a year.

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The advantage for women in terms of life expectancy was lower in rich countries that it is today.
Let's now look at the way that female advantages in longevity has changed with time. The next chart compares male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two specific points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. as well as women in the US have a much longer life span 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 terms of life expectancy used to be very small however, it has increased significantly in the past century.

By selecting 'Change Country in the chart, you are able to check that these two points also apply to other countries that have available information: Sweden, France and the UK.