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 reason why women live longer than men? What is the reason has this advantage gotten larger as time passes? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to draw a definitive conclusion. Although we know that there are biological, psychological and environmental variables which play a significant role in women's longevity more than males, it isn't clear how much each one contributes.

In spite of how much weight, we know that at least a portion of the reason women live so much longer than men in the present, but not in the past, is to have to do with the fact that certain key non-biological factors have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Other are more complicated. For example, كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور 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, كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور 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 every country is over the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl from any country can expect to live longer than her older brother.

It is interesting to note that although the female advantage exists in all countries, cross-country differences are large. In Russia women are 10 years older than men, while in Bhutan the difference is just half each year.

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The advantage for women in terms of life expectancy was lower in the richer countries than it is now.
Let's look at how the advantage of women in longevity has changed with time. The next chart compares male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two distinct features stand out.

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

The second is that there is an increasing gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be extremely small however it increased dramatically during the last century.

You can check if these principles are also applicable to other countries with data by clicking the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.