Why Do Women Live 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's the reason why women have a longer life span than men? What is the reason has this advantage gotten larger over time? The evidence isn't conclusive and we're left with only partial answers. Although we know that there are biological, psychological as well as environmental factors which play a significant role in women who live longer than males, we aren't sure what percentage each factor plays in.

It is known that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. However it is not because of certain non-biological factors have changed. What are these new factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others 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, all countries are above the diagonal parity line ; it means that in all nations baby girls can expect to live longer than a newborn boy.1

The chart above shows that while the female advantage exists everywhere, the difference between countries is huge. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the gap is just half an hour.

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The advantage for women in terms of life expectancy was lower in countries with higher incomes as compared to the present.
We will now examine how the advantage of women in longevity has changed with time. The following chart shows the men and women's life expectancies at birth in the US during the period 1790 to 2014. Two things stand out.

There is an upward trend. as well as women in the US are living much, علامات الحمل بولد (glorynote.com) much longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is widening: علامات الحمل بولد While the advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was tiny but it has risen significantly over time.

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