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 makes women live longer than men in the present and why have these advantages gotten bigger over time? The evidence isn't conclusive and we have only limited answers. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women are healthier than men; but we don't know exactly what the contribution of each factor is.

In spite of the weight, we know that at a minimum, the reason women live so much longer than men do today and not previously, is to have to do with the fact that a number of 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 complicated. 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. It is clear that every country is over the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl from any country can expect to live longer than her brothers.

The chart above shows that the advantage of women exists across all countries, the country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of less than half a calendar year.

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In the richer countries, the longevity advantage for women used to be smaller
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The chart below shows gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at birth in the US in the years 1790 to 2014. Two points stand افضل شامبو وبلسم out.

First, there is an upward trend. Women and men in America live longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is a widening gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be very small however it increased dramatically in the past century.

Using the option 'Change country in the chart, you are able to verify that these two points also apply to other countries that have available data: Sweden, France and the UK.