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 so more than men do today and how have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? The evidence is limited and we have only some answers. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women have longer life spans than men, however, we aren't sure how significant the impact of each of these factors is.

We know that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. However it is not because of certain non-biological factors have changed. The factors changing are numerous. 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. We can see that every country is above the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl from any country can anticipate to live longer than her brothers.

This chart shows that, even though women enjoy an advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries are often significant. In Russia, اضيق وضعية للجماع women live for 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan the difference is less than half a calendar year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was less in developed countries as compared to the present.
Let's examine how the female advantage in longevity has changed with time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US during the period 1790 to 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

There is an upward trend. as well as women in the US live much, much 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 female advantage in life expectancy was once tiny, it has increased substantially in the past.

It is possible to verify that these points are also applicable to other countries with data by selecting the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.