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 have a longer life span than men? And why is this difference growing as time passes? The evidence isn't conclusive and we're left with only incomplete solutions. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women have longer life spans than men, however, we do not know what the contribution of each of these factors is.

It is known that women live longer than men, regardless of weight. However this isn't because of certain non-biological aspects have changed. What are these new factors? 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 صبغ الشعر بالاسود 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 every country can be expected to live for longer than her brothers.

This chart shows that, although women have an advantage across all countries, صبغ الشعر بالاسود - linked resource site, differences between countries can be substantial. In Russia, women live 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan the gap is just half a year.

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The female advantage in life expectancy was smaller in developed countries than it is today.
Let's now look at the way that female advantages in longevity has changed over time. The next chart compares male and female life expectancies when they were born in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two points stand out.

There is an upward trend. and women in the US live a lot, much longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is getting wider: Although the female advantage in life expectancy used to be very small but it has risen significantly in the past.

It is possible to verify that these are applicable to other countries that have information by clicking on the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.