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 makes women live much longer than men today and how is this difference growing over time? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't strong enough to make an absolute conclusion. We are aware that behavioral, biological and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women have longer life spans than men, However, we're not sure how significant the impact of each of these factors is.

We know that women live longer than men, regardless of their weight. But it is not due to the fact that certain biological factors have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Other are more complicated. 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 new boy.1

This chart shows that, although women have an advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries are often significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan, the difference is less than half a calendar year.

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In wealthy countries, the women's advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's look at the way that female advantages in life expectancy has changed over time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancies at the birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

First, ابر التخسيس there's 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.

There is a widening gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used be very modest however, it has increased significantly during the last century.

If you select the option "Change country in the chart, confirm that the two points also apply to the other countries having available data: Sweden, France and the UK.