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? What is the reason has this advantage gotten larger over time? The evidence is limited and we're only able to provide partial solutions. Although we know that there are behavioral, biological as well as environmental factors that all play a role in the longevity of women over males, we aren't sure the extent to which each factor plays a role.

It is known that women live longer than men, regardless of weight. But this isn't because of certain biological factors have changed. What are these changing factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others are more complex. 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 above the diagonal line of parity - it means that in all nations a newborn girl can expect to live for كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور longer than a newborn boy.1

The chart below shows that even though women enjoy an advantage in all countries, the differences across countries can be substantial. In Russia, women live for 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of only half a year.

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In wealthy countries, the longevity advantage for كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور (This Web-site) women used to be smaller
Let's examine how the female advantage in life expectancy has changed over time. The next chart plots the life expectancy of males and females at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two points stand out.

There is an upward trend. Women and men in America live longer than they used to a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The second is that there is a widening gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be very modest, but it grew substantially over the last century.

By selecting 'Change Country from the chart, you can confirm that the two points are applicable to the other countries having available information: Sweden, France and the UK.