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. Why do women live longer than men in the present and why does this benefit increase over time? The evidence is limited and we only have some answers. Although we know that there are biological, psychological and environmental variables that play an integral role in women living longer than men, we do not know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

In spite of how much weight, we know that at a minimum, the reason why women live longer than men however not as in the past, is to do with the fact that a number of key non-biological factors have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others 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. As we can see, all countries are above the diagonal line of parity - it means that in all nations the newborn girl is likely 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 could be significant. In Russia, women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan the difference is only half a year.

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The advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was lower in rich countries than it is today.
Let's now look at how the advantage of women in life expectancy has changed over time. The following chart shows the male and female lifespans at birth in the US between 1790 and اوضاع الجماع 2014. Two areas stand out.

There is an upward trend. Men and women in the United States live longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is an ever-widening gap: female advantage in life expectancy used to be extremely small but it increased substantially over the course of the last century.

Using the option 'Change country by country' in the chart, check that these two points are also applicable to the other countries having available information: Sweden, France and the UK.