Why Women Are More Likely To 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. Why do women live much longer than men today, and why has this advantage increased over time? We have only a small amount of evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to reach an absolute conclusion. Although we know that there are behavioral, biological and environmental factors that all play a role in women's longevity more than males, it isn't clear the extent to which each factor plays a role.

Independently of the exact amount of weight, we are aware that a large portion of the reason women live so much longer than men today, but not previously, is to do with the fact that several 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. Some are more complex. 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 parity line ; this means in all countries the newborn girl is likely to live longer than a newborn boy.1

The chart below shows that although women have an advantage everywhere, cross-country differences can be substantial. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men; in Bhutan the gap is just half one year.

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In wealthy countries, the female advantage in longevity used to be smaller
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart compares male and female life expectancy at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men as well as women in the US live much, much longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is growing: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy was once quite small It has significantly increased over time.

You can confirm that these points are also applicable to other countries with data by clicking on the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, افضل شامبو وبلسم and Sweden.