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 have a longer life span than men? Why is this difference growing over time? The evidence is limited and we only have partial answers. We are aware that behavioral, biological and environmental factors all play a role in the fact that women have longer life spans than men, however, we aren't sure how significant the impact of each of these factors is.

We are aware that women are living longer than males, regardless of weight. But it is not due to the fact that certain biological or non-biological factors have changed. What are the factors that are changing? 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 parity line - which means that in every country that a baby girl can be expected to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart shows that, although women have an advantage in all countries, the differences across countries could be significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of only half a year.

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In countries with high incomes, the female advantage in longevity was smaller
Let's examine how the female advantage in terms of longevity has changed over time. The next chart compares male and اضيق وضعية للجماع female life expectancy when they were born in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men and women living in America are living longer than they used to a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

And second, there is an increase in the gap between men and women: female advantage in life expectancy used be very small but it increased substantially during the last century.

You can verify that these are applicable to other countries with information by clicking on the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, اضيق وضعية للجماع and Sweden.