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 much longer than men today, and why is this difference growing in the past? The evidence is limited and we're left with only limited solutions. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women live longer than men; however, we do not know how significant the impact of each one of these factors is.

We know that women are living longer than males, regardless of weight. However this isn't because of certain biological factors have changed. What are these factors that have changed? Some are well known and افضل كريم للشعر relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are other issues that are more intricate. 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 we can see, افضل كريم للشعر every country is above the diagonal parity line - 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 there is a women's advantage across all countries, differences between countries could be significant. In Russia women are 10 years older than men; in Bhutan the gap is just half a year.

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In countries with high incomes, the women's advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's examine how the gender advantage in terms of longevity has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancies at birth in the US from 1790 until 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

There is an upward trend. Men and women living in America are living 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 getting wider: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy used to be very small but it has risen significantly over time.

When you click on the option "Change country in the chart, you are able to check that these two points also apply to the other countries having available information: Sweden, France and the UK.