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. What's the main reason women are more likely to live longer than men? What is the reason has this advantage gotten larger in the past? We only have a few clues and the evidence isn't sufficient to draw an absolute conclusion. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological and environmental factors which all play a part in women who live longer than males, it isn't clear how much each factor contributes.

We are aware that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. But, this is not because of certain non-biological aspects have changed. These are the factors that are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, 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, اضيق وضعية للجماع 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, every country is above the diagonal parity line , which means that in every country that a baby girl can be expected to live longer than a new boy.1

This chart is interesting in that it shows that although the female advantage exists everywhere, the global differences are significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than males; while in Bhutan the difference is just half each year.

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In wealthy countries, the advantage of women in longevity was previously smaller.
We will now examine how the advantage of women in longevity has changed over time. The following chart shows the life expectancy of males and females when they were born in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two aspects stand out.

First, 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 getting wider: Although the female advantage in life expectancy was once tiny but it has risen significantly over time.

By selecting 'Change Country by country' in the chart, you are able to check that these two points also apply to other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.