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 is the reason women have a longer life span than men? Why is this difference growing as time passes? The evidence is limited and we only have partial solutions. We know there are biological, behavioral, and environmental factors which all play a part in women who live longer than men, we do not know what percentage each factor plays in.

In spite of the precise amount, we can say that a large portion of the reason women live so much longer than men today and not previously, is to be due to the fact that a number of fundamental 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 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. We can see that all countries are over the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl from every country could be expected to live for longer than her brother.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that while the female advantage is present everywhere, ماذا يحدث بين الزوجين في الحمام بالصور (glorynote.com) global differences are significant. In Russia, women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the difference is just half a year.

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In rich countries the female advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below shows male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US from 1790 until 2014. Two points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men and women in America live longer than they used to 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is widening: While the female advantage in life expectancy was once quite small It has significantly increased with time.

If you select the option "Change country in the chart, you are able to check that these two points are also applicable to the other countries having available information: Sweden, France and the UK.