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 is the reason women live longer than men? And why is this difference growing as time passes? There isn't much evidence and we're left with only partial solutions. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral as well as environmental factors which all play a part in women living longer than men, we do not know how much each one contributes.

In spite of the precise number of pounds, we know that at least a portion of the reason why women live longer than men today but not previously, is to have to do with the fact that a number of significant non-biological elements have changed. These variables are evolving. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others 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. As we can see, تحاميل مهبلية all countries are above the diagonal parity line ; it means that in all nations the newborn girl is likely to live for longer than a new boy.1

This graph shows that although women have an advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries are often significant. In Russia, women live 10 years more than males. In Bhutan the difference is less that half a year.

__S.17__
__S.19__
The advantage for women in terms of life expectancy was lower in countries with higher incomes as compared to the present.
Let's look at how the female advantage in terms of longevity has changed over time. The following chart shows the life expectancy of males and females at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two aspects stand out.

There is an upward trend. Men and women living in America are living longer than they used to 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is growing: Although the female advantage in terms of life expectancy was quite small however, it has grown significantly over time.

By selecting 'Change Country by country' in the chart, you can check that these two points apply to the other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.