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. Why do women live longer than men and why is this difference growing in the past? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn't strong enough to make an unambiguous conclusion. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women live longer than men; however, we do not know how significant the impact of each factor is.

We know that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. But this is not due to the fact that 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. Other are more complicated. 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. It is clear that all countries are above the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl in all countries can be expected to live for longer than her brother.

It is interesting to note that while the female advantage is present everywhere, difference between countries is huge. In Russia women are 10 years older than men, while in Bhutan the difference is just half a year.

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The female advantage in life expectancy was less in rich countries than it is today.
Let's examine how the gender advantage in terms of longevity has changed over time. The next chart plots the life expectancy of males and females when they were born in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two aspects stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Women and men in America live 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 increasing: زيوت تطويل الشعر While the advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was quite small, it has increased substantially in the past.

You can confirm that the points you've listed are applicable to other countries that have data by selecting the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.