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's the main reason women live longer than men? And why has this advantage gotten larger over time? There isn't much evidence and we only have partial answers. We know there are behavioral, biological, and environmental factors that all play a role in the longevity of women over males, we aren't sure what percentage each factor plays in.

It is known that women live longer than men, regardless of their weight. However it is not because of certain 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 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 العاب زوجية women. It is clear that every country is over the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl from every country could anticipate to live longer than her younger brother.

The chart below shows that although there is a women's advantage everywhere, cross-country differences are often significant. In Russia, women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan, the difference is less than half a calendar year.

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In countries with high incomes, the women's advantage in longevity used to be smaller
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below illustrates the men and women's life expectancies at birth in the US between 1790 to 2014. Two things stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Both genders in America live longer than they were 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is growing: Although the female advantage in life expectancy was very small, it has increased substantially over time.

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