Why 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 women are more likely to live longer than men? And how the advantage has grown over time? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to draw a definitive conclusion. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological as well as environmental factors which all play a part in the longevity of women over men, we do not know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

In spite of how much weight, we know that at least part of the reason women live longer than men however not as in the past, has to relate to the fact that certain fundamental non-biological factors have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others are more complex. For example, اضيق وضعية للجماع 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 all countries are above the diagonal line of parity - which means that in every country a newborn girl can expect to live longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart shows that, while there is a female advantage across all countries, differences between countries can be substantial. In Russia women are 10 years older than men. In Bhutan the gap is just half one year.

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The advantage for women in life expectancy was less in developed countries as compared to the present.
Let's look at how the female advantage in longevity has changed over time. The following chart shows the life expectancy of males and females when they were born in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two specific points stand out.

First, there's an upward trend: Men as well as women in the US live much, much longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is an increasing gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be very small but it increased substantially over the course of the last century.

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