Why Do Women 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. Why do women live so more than men do today, and why has this advantage increased over time? There isn't much evidence and we're left with only incomplete solutions. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women live longer than men; but we don't know exactly how significant the impact of each of these factors is.

We are aware that women live longer than men, regardless of weight. But this isn't due to the fact that certain biological or non-biological factors have changed. What are these factors that have changed? 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. It is clear that all countries are above the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl in all countries can expect to live longer than her brothers.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that while the female advantage is present everywhere, difference between countries is huge. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the gap is less than half an hour.

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In countries with high incomes, the advantage of women in longevity used to be smaller
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart shows the life expectancy of males and females at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two aspects stand out.

There is an upward trend. Both genders in the United States live longer than they did 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 terms of life expectancy was very small but it has risen significantly with time.

By selecting 'Change Country by country' in the chart, افضل شامبو وبلسم you will be able to determine if these two points also apply to the other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.