Why Are Women Living 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 are more likely to live longer than men? What is the reason the advantage has grown over time? The evidence isn't conclusive and we're only able to provide partial solutions. We know there are biological, psychological and environmental factors that all play a role in women living longer than men, we don't know how much each factor contributes.

It is known that women live longer than men, regardless of their weight. But it is not due to the fact that certain 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. Some 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, 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 from any country can anticipate to live longer than her brother.

The chart above shows that, while the advantage for women exists in all countries, global differences are significant. In Russia women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of less that half a year.

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The female advantage in life expectancy was less in countries with higher incomes as compared to the present.
Let's examine how the female advantage in life expectancy has changed over time. The chart below shows gender-based and female-specific life expectancy when they were born in the US in the years 1790 to 2014. Two distinct features stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men as well as women in the US live much, much longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, there's an ever-widening gap: female advantage in life expectancy used to be quite small but it increased substantially during the last century.

Using the option 'Change country in the chart, you are able to check that these two points apply to the other countries having available data: Sweden, France and افضل كريم للشعر the UK.