Why Do Women Have Longer Lives 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 longer than men in the present and why has this advantage increased over time? There is only limited evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to draw a definitive conclusion. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women live longer than men; however, we do not know how much the influence of each of these factors is.

In spite of the weight, we know that at least a portion of the reason women live so much longer than men do today however not as previously, اضيق وضعية للجماع is to be due to the fact that several 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. As you can see, all countries are above the diagonal parity line , it means that in all nations a newborn girl can expect to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

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

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In wealthy countries, the advantage of women in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The following chart shows the male and female lifespans at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and اضيق وضعية للجماع 2014. Two specific points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Both men and women in the US are living much, much longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

And second, there is an increase in the gap between men and women: female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be very small however, it has increased significantly during the last century.

When you click on the option "Change country' on the chart, you can determine if these two points also apply to the other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.