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 is the reason women live much longer than men today and why is this difference growing in the past? We only have a few clues and the evidence is not sufficient to support a definitive conclusion. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women have longer lives than men, but we don't know exactly how significant the impact of each one of these factors is.

In spite of the amount, we can say that at a minimum, the reason why women live longer than men in the present however not as in the past, has to be due to the fact that certain important non-biological aspects have changed. These variables are evolving. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others are more complex. For example, ماذا يحدث بين الزوجين في الحمام 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, 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 above the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl from every country could expect to live longer than her brothers.

The chart above shows that while the female advantage exists across all countries, the cross-country differences are large. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan, the difference is just half a year.

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In rich countries the female advantage in longevity was not as great.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below illustrates the men and women's life expectancies at the time of birth in the US in the years 1790 to 2014. Two areas stand out.

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

And second, there is an ever-widening gap: female advantage in life expectancy used to be very small however, it has increased significantly over the course of the last century.

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