Why Women Are More Likely To 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 is the reason women have a longer life span than men? Why is this difference growing over time? The evidence isn't conclusive and we're left with only limited answers. Although we know that there are biological, behavioral as well as environmental factors that play an integral role in women living longer than males, we aren't sure how much each one contributes.

We are aware that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. But this isn't due to the fact that certain non-biological factors have changed. What are these factors that have changed? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others 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, كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور so advances in medicine that reduced the long-term health burden from infectious diseases, كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور 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 - this means in all countries that a baby girl can be expected to live longer than a newborn boy.1

The chart above shows that the advantage of women is present everywhere, difference between countries is huge. In Russia, women live 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan the difference is just half a year.

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In the richer countries, the women's advantage in longevity used to be smaller
Let's look at the way that female advantages in life expectancy has changed over time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancy at the birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two areas stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men and women in America live longer than they used to a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is an increase in the gap between men and women: female advantage in life expectancy used to be very small, but it grew substantially during the last century.

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