Why Do Women Have Longer Lives 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's the reason women are more likely to live longer than men? Why is this difference growing in the past? The evidence is limited and we only have incomplete solutions. We know that behavioral, biological and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women live longer than men; However, we're not sure how much the influence of each factor is.

It is known that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. But it 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. 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 صبغ الشعر بالاسود men and women. We can see that all countries are over the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl in every country can anticipate to live longer than her brothers.

This chart illustrates that, even though women enjoy an advantage across all countries, differences between countries can be substantial. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan, the difference is only half a year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was much lower in countries with higher incomes than it is today.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancy at the time of birth in the US between 1790 until 2014. Two points stand out.

There is an upward trend. Women and men living in America are living longer than they were a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is widening: While the advantage of women in life expectancy was extremely small It has significantly increased over time.

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