Why Do 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 why women live longer than men? And how has this advantage gotten larger as time passes? We have only a small amount of evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to support an informed conclusion. We know there are biological, psychological as well as environmental factors which all play a part in the longevity of women over males, it isn't clear what percentage each factor plays in.

Independently of the exact amount, we can say that at least a portion of the reason why women live longer than men today but not in the past, is to relate to the fact that certain important non-biological aspects have changed. The factors changing are numerous. 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, 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 parity line , it means that in all nations a newborn girl can expect to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart illustrates that, although there is a women's advantage across all countries, differences between countries could be significant. In Russia women have a longer life span than men. In Bhutan the difference is just half an hour.

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The advantage for women in life expectancy was much lower in the richer countries as compared to the present.
Let's examine the way that female advantages in longevity has changed with time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancies at birth in the US during the period 1790 to 2014. Two points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men and women in the US are living much, much longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

And second, there is an increase in the gap between men and women: female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be very small however, it has increased significantly over the last century.

By selecting 'Change Country' on the chart, العاب زوجية (glorynote.com) you are able to determine if these two points are also applicable to other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.