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 is the reason women live longer than men? What is the reason is this difference growing in the past? The evidence isn't conclusive and we're only able to provide some solutions. We recognize that biological, تحاميل مهبلية behavioral and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women have longer life spans than men, however, we do not know how much the influence of each one of these factors is.

In spite of the amount, we can say that at least part of the reason why women live longer than men but not in the past, has to be due to the fact that a number of significant non-biological elements have changed. These variables are evolving. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Some 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 line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl in all countries can expect to live longer than her older brother.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that while the female advantage exists everywhere, the cross-country differences are large. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than men, while in Bhutan the difference is less than half a year.

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In wealthy countries, the female advantage in longevity was smaller
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancy at birth in the US during the period 1790 until 2014. Two points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Both genders in the United States live longer than they used to 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is an ever-widening gap: female advantage in terms of life expectancy used to be extremely small however, it has increased significantly over the course of the last century.

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