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. Why do women live so longer than men in the present and why have these advantages gotten bigger over time? The evidence isn't conclusive and we're left with only limited solutions. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral as well as environmental factors which all play a part in women's longevity more than males, we aren't sure how much each one contributes.

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. What are these changing factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others that are more intricate. For example, افضل شامبو وبلسم 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 افضل شامبو وبلسم women. As we can see, every country is above the diagonal line of parity - it means that in all nations a newborn girl can expect to live for longer than a new boy.1

This chart shows that, although there is a women's advantage in all countries, the differences across countries are often significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than males; while in Bhutan the difference is less than half a year.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was less in rich countries that it is today.
We will now examine the way that female advantages in longevity has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancies at birth in the US in the years 1790 until 2014. Two specific points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men as well as women in the US live a lot, much longer today than a century 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 quite small It has significantly increased in the past.

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