Why Are Women Living 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 more than men do today, and why is this difference growing in the past? The evidence isn't conclusive and we're only able to provide some solutions. We know there are behavioral, biological and environmental factors that all play a role in the longevity of women over men, we do not know how much each one contributes.

In spite of the precise amount, we can say that at a minimum, the reason why women live so much longer than men do today however not as previously, is to relate to the fact that several important non-biological aspects have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and علامات الحمل بولد (company website) relatively straightforward, علامات الحمل بولد 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 you can see, all countries are above the diagonal parity line ; it means that in all nations that a baby girl can be expected to live longer than a newborn boy.1

The chart below shows that while there is a female advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries can be substantial. In Russia, women live for 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan, the difference is just half a year.

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The female advantage in terms of life expectancy was lower in the richer countries than it is now.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The next chart shows male and female life expectancies at birth in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two distinct features stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men and women in the United States live longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is an increasing gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used to be extremely small however, it has increased significantly over the course of the last century.

When you click on the option "Change country by country' in the chart, you will be able to confirm that the two points also apply to other countries that have available information: Sweden, France and the UK.