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. Why do women live longer than men in the present, and why does this benefit increase over time? The evidence is sketchy and we're only able to provide limited answers. We know there are biological, psychological as well as environmental factors that play an integral role in the longevity of women over males, we aren't sure how much each factor contributes.

In spite of how much amount, we can say that at least part of the reason why women live so much longer than men but not in the past, is to have to do with the fact that some key non-biological factors have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others are more complex. 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, افضل كريم للشعر 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 every country is above the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl in every country can be expected to live for longer than her brother.

This chart shows that, although there is a women's advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries could be significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan the difference is less that half a year.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was smaller in the richer countries as compared to the present.
We will now examine how the advantage of women in life expectancy has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the men and women's life expectancies when they were born in the US during the period 1790 to 2014. Two aspects stand out.

There is an upward trend: Men and افضل كريم للشعر 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.

The gap is growing: Although the advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was quite small It has significantly increased in the past.

When you click on the option "Change country in the chart, you will be able to check that these two points also apply to other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.