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 have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? The evidence is limited and we're left with only incomplete solutions. We know there are biological, psychological and environmental factors that all play a role in women who live longer than males, we aren't sure how much each factor contributes.

It is known that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. However it is not due to the fact that certain biological or non-biological factors have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others are more complex. For كيفية ممارسة العلاقة الزوجية فى الاسلام 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 parity line - which means that in every country that a baby girl can be expected to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

It is interesting to note that while the female advantage exists across all countries, the difference between countries is huge. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than men; in Bhutan the gap is just half each year.

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In countries with high incomes, the female advantage in longevity was smaller
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart compares the life expectancy of males and females when they were born in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two aspects stand out.

There is an upward trend. Both genders in America live longer than they were a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The second is that there is an increase in the gap between men and women: female advantage in life expectancy used be extremely small however it increased dramatically during the last century.

You can confirm that these points are also applicable to other countries with data by clicking the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and كيفية ممارسة العلاقة الزوجية فى الاسلام Sweden.