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 is the reason women live longer than men? And why has this advantage gotten larger as time passes? We only have a few clues and the evidence is not sufficient to reach an informed conclusion. We are aware that behavioral, اضيق وضعية للجماع biological and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women are healthier than men; but we don't know exactly how significant the impact of each of these factors is.

In spite of the weight, we know that at a minimum, the reason women live longer than men, but not previously, is to have to do with the fact that several significant non-biological elements have changed. These variables are evolving. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are other issues that are more intricate. 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 all countries are above the diagonal parity line - this means that in all countries the newborn girl is likely to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

Interestingly, this chart shows that although the female advantage is present everywhere, cross-country differences are large. In Russia women have a longer life span than men; in Bhutan the difference is just half one year.

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In rich countries the advantage of women in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The following chart shows male and female life expectancy at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two specific points stand out.

There is an upward trend: Men and women in the US have a much longer life span longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is widening: While the female advantage in terms of life expectancy was extremely small however, it has grown significantly over time.

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