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 are more likely to live longer than men? Why the advantage has grown as time passes? The evidence is sketchy and we only have incomplete answers. Although we know that there are behavioral, biological, and environmental factors which all play a part in the longevity of women over males, it isn't clear how much each factor contributes.

In spite of the amount of weight, we are aware that at a minimum, the reason women live longer than men in the present, but not previously, is to do with the fact that some fundamental non-biological factors have changed. What are these new factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Other 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, 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, every country is above the diagonal parity line ; it means that in all nations a newborn girl can expect to live longer than a newborn boy.1

The chart below shows that although there is a women's advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries can be substantial. In Russia, women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan, the difference is only half a year.

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The advantage for women in terms of life expectancy was lower in rich countries than it is today.
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below illustrates the men and افضل كريم للشعر women's life expectancies at the birth in the US between 1790 to 2014. Two points stand افضل كريم للشعر out.

There is an upward trend. Women and men in the United States live longer than they were 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is increasing: While the advantage of women in life expectancy was tiny but it has risen significantly over time.

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