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 much longer than men today and how have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we're left with only limited answers. We know that behavioral, biological and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women have longer lives than men, however, we aren't sure how significant the impact to each of these variables is.

In spite of the weight, we know that at least part of the reason why women live so much longer than men today and not in the past, is to have to do with the fact that certain significant non-biological elements have changed. The factors changing are numerous. 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, كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور 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 كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور women. We can see that all countries are over the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl from every country could anticipate to live longer than her brothers.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that the advantage of women exists everywhere, the cross-country differences are large. In Russia women are 10 years older than men; in Bhutan the difference is just half an hour.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was much lower in developed countries than it is now.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart compares the life expectancy of males and females at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Women and men in America have longer lives than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The second is that there is an increasing gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used be quite small, but it grew substantially over the last century.

If you select the option "Change country in the chart, determine if these two points apply to other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.