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? Why the advantage has grown as time passes? The evidence is limited and we're only able to provide partial solutions. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral as well as environmental factors that all play a role in women's longevity more than men, we do not know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

In spite of how much number of pounds, we know that at least a portion of the reason why women live longer than men in the present, اضيق وضعية للجماع but not in the past, is to have to do with the fact that some 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. There are other issues that are more intricate. 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 over the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl in every country can anticipate to live longer than her younger brother.

It is interesting to note that, while the advantage for women exists across all countries, the country-specific differences are huge. In Russia, women live for 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of less that half a year.

__S.17__
__S.19__
In rich countries the women's advantage in longevity was smaller
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The next chart compares male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two aspects stand out.

There is an upward trend. Both genders in America have longer lives than they used to a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is widening: While the female advantage in terms of life expectancy was extremely small however, it has grown significantly in the past.

If you select the option "Change country' on the chart, you can verify that these two points are applicable to the other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.