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 longer than men and why is this difference growing in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we have only some answers. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women have longer lives than men, but we don't know exactly how strong the relative contribution of each factor is.

We have learned that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. However it is not because of certain 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. Certain are more complicated. 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, العاب زوجية 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 parity line , this means in all countries a newborn girl can expect to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

Interestingly, this chart shows that, while the advantage for women is present everywhere, global differences are significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of less than half a calendar year.

__S.17__
__S.19__
The female advantage in life expectancy was much lower in the richer countries that it is today.
Let's now look at how the advantage of women in longevity has changed with time. The chart below illustrates the gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at the birth in the US between 1790 to 2014. Two points stand out.

There is an upward trend. Both men as well as women in the US have a much longer life span longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is getting wider: Although the female advantage in life expectancy was tiny, it has increased substantially over time.

By selecting 'Change Country from the chart, you can check that these two points are also applicable to other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.