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 have a longer life span than men? Why does this benefit increase as time passes? The evidence isn't conclusive and we're only able to provide some answers. We know there are biological, behavioral and environmental variables which play a significant role in the longevity of women over men, we don't know how much each one contributes.

It is known that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. But this is not because of certain non-biological factors have changed. These are the factors that are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others 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. We can see that all countries are above the diagonal line of parity - this means that in all countries that a baby girl can be expected to live longer than a new boy.1

This graph shows that while there is a female advantage everywhere, cross-country differences are often significant. In Russia women live 10 years more than males. In Bhutan, افضل كريم للشعر the difference is just half a year.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was smaller in countries with higher incomes that it is today.
Let's look at the way that female advantages in life expectancy has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the men and women's life expectancies when they were born in the US in the years 1790-2014. Two specific points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Both genders in America have longer lives than they were a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is increasing: While the advantage of women in life expectancy was very small however, it has grown significantly in the past.

You can check if these principles are also applicable to other countries that have data by selecting the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.