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 so longer than men, and why have these advantages gotten bigger over time? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to reach an unambiguous conclusion. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all play a role in the fact that women have longer lives than men, however, we do not know what the contribution to each of these variables is.

In spite of how much amount of weight, we are aware that at a minimum, the reason women live longer than men today, but not previously, is to have to do with the fact that several important non-biological aspects 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. 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 longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart illustrates that, although there is a women's advantage everywhere, cross-country differences could be significant. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than men. In Bhutan the difference is less than half each year.

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In wealthy countries, the advantage of women in longevity used to be smaller
Let's look at how the gender advantage in longevity has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US between 1790-2014. Two areas stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Both genders in America live longer than they used to 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is increasing: While the female advantage in life expectancy was tiny however, it has grown significantly over time.

Using the option 'Change country in the chart, check that these two points apply to the other countries having available information: Sweden, France and اوضاع الجماع the UK.