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 live much longer than men today, and why has this advantage increased over time? The evidence isn't conclusive and we have only some answers. Although we know that there are biological, psychological and environmental factors which play a significant role in the longevity of women over men, we don't know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

In spite of the weight, we know that at least part of the reason women live longer than men today, but not in the past, has to do with the fact that certain significant non-biological elements have changed. What are the factors that are changing? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Certain are more complicated. 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, every country is above the diagonal parity line , it means that in all nations that a baby girl can be expected to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart illustrates that, even though women enjoy an advantage everywhere, cross-country differences can be significant. In Russia women are 10 years older than men. In Bhutan the difference is less than half one year.

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In rich countries the longevity advantage for women was previously smaller.
Let's look at how the female advantage in longevity has changed with time. The chart below illustrates the gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at the time of birth in the US between 1790 until 2014. Two specific points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Both men as well as women in the US are living much, العاب زوجية much longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is widening: العاب زوجية While the advantage of women in life expectancy was once tiny but it has risen significantly over time.

You can verify that these are applicable to other countries that have data by selecting the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.