Why Are Women Living 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 reason women live longer than men? And how does this benefit increase in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we have only partial answers. We are aware that behavioral, biological and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women live longer than men; however, we aren't sure what the contribution to each of these variables is.

In spite of how much amount of weight, we are aware that at a minimum, the reason women live so much longer than men in the present and not previously, is to be due to the fact that several key non-biological factors have changed. What are the factors that are changing? 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, علامات الحمل بولد 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 all countries are over the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl in all countries can be expected to live for longer than her brother.

This chart illustrates that, although women have an advantage across all countries, differences between countries can be substantial. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than men. In Bhutan the difference is just half each year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was less in rich countries than it is today.
Let's now look at how the gender advantage in life expectancy has changed over time. The following chart shows the men and women's life expectancies at the birth in the US between 1790-2014. Two areas stand out.

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

The second is that there is an increasing gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used to be quite small, but it grew substantially over the last century.

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