Why Do Women Have Longer Lives 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 makes women live much longer than men today and why has this advantage increased in the past? The evidence is limited and we're only able to provide incomplete answers. Although we know that there are biological, psychological, and environmental factors which play a significant role in women's longevity more than males, we aren't sure how much each factor contributes.

Independently of the exact amount, we can say that at least part of the reason women live longer than men in the present, but not in the past, has to be due to the fact that a number of significant non-biological elements have changed. What are these changing factors? 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. It is clear that all countries are above the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl from every country could expect to live longer than her brothers.

The chart below shows that even though women enjoy an advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries can be substantial. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan, the difference is just half a year.

__S.17__
__S.19__
The advantage for women in life expectancy was less in countries with higher incomes than it is now.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart compares the life expectancy of males and females at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two points stand out.

There is an upward trend. Men and women in America live longer than they were 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is widening: While the advantage of women in life expectancy was quite small however, it has grown significantly over time.

You can confirm that these principles are also applicable to other countries with data by clicking on the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, ابر التخسيس (glorynote.com) France, and Sweden.