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 have a longer life span than men? What is the reason has this advantage gotten larger in the past? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to reach a definitive conclusion. We know there are biological, behavioral and environmental factors which play a significant role in women living longer than males, it isn't clear how much each factor contributes.

We know that women live longer than men, regardless of weight. But this isn't because of certain biological factors have changed. What are the factors that are changing? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Certain 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. It is clear that all countries are over the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl in every country can anticipate to live longer than her brothers.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that while the female advantage exists everywhere, the difference between countries is huge. In Russia, women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan, the difference is just half a year.

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The female advantage in terms of life expectancy was lower in developed countries than it is now.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancies at the birth in the US in the years 1790 until 2014. Two points stand out.

First, there's an upward trend: العاب زوجية Men and women in the US are living much, much longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

And second, there is a widening gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used be very small but it increased substantially over the course of the last century.

It is possible to verify that these principles are also applicable to other countries with information by clicking on the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.