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's the main reason women have a longer life span than men? Why has this advantage gotten larger as time passes? The evidence isn't conclusive and we're left with only incomplete answers. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women have longer life spans than men, ماذا يحدث بين الزوجين في الحمام بالصور however, we aren't sure how much the influence of each factor is.

We know that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. But, this is not 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. 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. As you can see, every country is above the diagonal parity line , it means that in all nations the newborn girl is likely to live longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart illustrates that, although women have an advantage in all countries, the differences across countries are often significant. In Russia, women live 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of less that half a year.

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In wealthy countries, the women's advantage in longevity was smaller
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The following chart shows the gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at the time of birth in the US between 1790-2014. Two distinct features stand out.

First, there is an upward trend: Men and women in the US live a lot, 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 increasing: While the female advantage in life expectancy was once quite small however, it has grown significantly over time.

By selecting 'Change Country in the chart, you will be able to check that these two points are applicable to other countries that have available data: Sweden, France and the UK.