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 main reason women live longer than men? And how is this difference growing in the past? The evidence is limited and we have only some answers. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women are healthier than men; but we don't know exactly how much the influence of each factor is.

We are aware that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. But, this is not due to the fact that certain non-biological aspects have changed. These variables are evolving. 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, افضل شامبو وبلسم 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 diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl from every country could anticipate to live longer than her older brother.

It is interesting to note that, while the advantage for women exists across all countries, the cross-country differences are large. In Russia women are 10 years older than men. In Bhutan the difference is less than half a year.

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The advantage for women in life expectancy was smaller in the richer countries than it is now.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart compares the male and female lifespans when they were born in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two areas stand out.

First, there's an upward trend: Men and women in the US live much, much longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, there's a widening gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be quite small but it increased substantially over the last century.

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