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. What's the main reason women live longer than men? What is the reason does this benefit increase in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we have only partial answers. We know that behavioral, biological and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women are healthier than men; however, we aren't sure how much the influence of each one of these factors is.

We have learned that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. But it is not due to the fact that certain non-biological factors have changed. What are these factors that have changed? 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. It is clear that every country is above the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl in every country can expect to live longer than her older brother.

The chart above shows that while the female advantage exists everywhere, the global differences are significant. In Russia women have a longer life span than men, while in Bhutan the gap is less than half one year.

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In wealthy countries, علامات الحمل بولد the longevity advantage for women was not as great.
Let's now look at how the female advantage in longevity has changed over time. The next chart compares the life expectancy of males and females at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two areas stand out.

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

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

If you select the option "Change country in the chart, you will be able to verify that these two points also apply to the other countries having available data: Sweden, France and the UK.