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 reason why women are more likely to live longer than men? Why is this difference growing over time? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to reach an informed conclusion. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all play a role in the fact that women have longer life spans than men, however, we aren't sure what the contribution to each of these variables is.

Independently of the exact weight, we know that at least part of the reason why women live longer than men in the present but not in the past, is to have to do with the fact that some important non-biological aspects have changed. These variables are evolving. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others are more complex. For example, صبغ الشعر بالاسود 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 all countries are above the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl in every country can anticipate to live longer than her brother.

Interestingly, this chart shows that the advantage of women exists in all countries, country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women have a longer life span than males; while in Bhutan the difference is just half each year.

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In the richer countries, the longevity advantage for women was smaller
Let's now look at how the gender advantage in longevity has changed with time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancies at the birth in the US between 1790 to 2014. Two distinct features stand out.

First, there's an upward trend: Men as well as 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.

Second, the gap is increasing: While the advantage of women in life expectancy used to be tiny It has significantly increased in the past.

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