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 main reason women have a longer life span than men? And why does this benefit increase over time? We only have a few clues and the evidence is not sufficient to reach an absolute conclusion. We are aware that behavioral, biological and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women are healthier than men; however, we do not know how much the influence of each one of these factors is.

In spite of the amount, we can say that at least part of the reason why women live longer than men but not previously, is to have to do with the fact that a number of 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. Certain 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. As you can see, every country is above the diagonal line of parity - this means that in all countries the newborn girl is likely to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

The chart below shows that although there is a women's advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries can be significant. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of just half a year.

__S.17__
__S.19__
The advantage of women in life expectancy was smaller in developed countries than it is today.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancy at the time of birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two points stand out.

There is an upward trend: Men and زيوت تطويل الشعر (mouse click the next article) women in the US are living much, much longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is getting wider: Although the female advantage in life expectancy was quite small however, it has grown significantly in the past.

If you select the option "Change country in the chart, you will be able to check that these two points are applicable to other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.