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? Why does this benefit increase over time? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to support a definitive conclusion. We know there are behavioral, biological and environmental variables which play a significant role in women living longer than men, we don't know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

Independently of the exact number of pounds, we know that a large portion of the reason women live longer than men do today and not in the past, has to relate to the fact that several important non-biological aspects have changed. These variables are evolving. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Some 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. As you can see, العاب زوجية (https://glorynote.com/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%A7%D8%A8-%D8%B2%D9%88%D8%AC%D9%8A%D8%A9/) every country is above the diagonal parity line , العاب زوجية this means that in all countries a newborn girl can expect to live for longer than a new boy.1

This chart illustrates that, while there is a female advantage across all countries, differences between countries can be significant. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than men; in Bhutan the gap is just half an hour.

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In countries with high incomes, the women's advantage in longevity was smaller
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart shows the life expectancy of males and females at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Women and men in America have longer lives than they did 100 years 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 in the past.

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