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 live more than men do today, and why has this advantage increased over time? The evidence is limited and we're left with only incomplete solutions. Although we know that there are biological, psychological as well as environmental factors that play an integral role in the longevity of women over males, we aren't sure the extent to which each factor plays a role.

We are aware that women live longer than men, regardless of their weight. But this is not because of certain non-biological aspects have changed. What are the factors that are changing? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Some 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. As you can see, all countries are above the diagonal line of parity - it means that in all nations that a baby girl can be expected to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

Interestingly, ماذا يحدث بين الزوجين في الحمام بالصور this chart shows that while the female advantage is present everywhere, country-specific differences are huge. In Russia, women live for 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan, the difference is just half a year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was smaller in countries with higher incomes than it is today.
Let's look at how the gender advantage in longevity has changed with time. The next chart shows male and female life expectancy at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two distinct points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Both men and women in the US live much, much longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is increasing: While the female advantage in life expectancy was once extremely small, it has increased substantially over time.

You can verify that these points are also applicable to other countries that have data by clicking the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, ماذا يحدث بين الزوجين في الحمام بالصور France, and Sweden.