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 is the reason women live much longer than men today and why does this benefit increase over time? There isn't much evidence and we're only able to provide limited answers. While we are aware that there are biological, psychological, and environmental factors that all play a role in the longevity of women over males, it isn't clear how much each factor contributes.

We know that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. But, this is not due to the fact that certain non-biological factors have changed. What are these changing factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others 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. As you can see, every country is above the diagonal parity line ; this means in all countries a newborn girl can expect to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

It is interesting to note that while the female advantage is present everywhere, country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women have a longer life span than men, while in Bhutan the gap is just half an hour.

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In the richer countries, the women's advantage in longevity used to be smaller
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below shows male and female life expectancy at the time of birth in the US between 1790 to 2014. Two specific points stand out.

The first is that there is 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.

And second, there is a widening gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used be very modest but it increased substantially in the past century.

Using the option 'Change country by country' in the chart, علامات الحمل بولد you will be able to check that these two points are also applicable to the other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.