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 makes women live more than men do today, and why has this advantage increased over time? The evidence isn't conclusive and we're only able to provide limited answers. We know there are biological, behavioral and environmental variables which play a significant role in women's longevity more than men, we do not know what percentage each factor plays in.

Independently of the exact number of pounds, we know that at a minimum, the reason why women live longer than men in the present but not previously, has to be due to the fact that some important non-biological aspects have changed. What are these factors that have changed? 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. As you can see, all countries are above the diagonal line of parity - which means that in every country the newborn girl is likely to live for longer than a new boy.1

This graph shows that although women have an advantage everywhere, cross-country differences could be significant. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than males; while in Bhutan the difference is less than half each year.

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In the richer countries, the longevity advantage for women was previously smaller.
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The next chart plots male and female life expectancy at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two specific points stand out.

There is an upward trend: Men and women in the US have a much longer life span longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is widening: اضيق وضعية للجماع, More, While the advantage of women in life expectancy used to be extremely small It has significantly increased over time.

If you select the option "Change country from the chart, check that these two points also apply to other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.