Why Women Are More Likely To 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 live more than men do today and why does this benefit increase over time? We only have a few clues and the evidence is not sufficient to reach an informed conclusion. We know there are biological, psychological, and environmental factors which all play a part in women living longer than males, it isn't clear how much each factor contributes.

In spite of the weight, we know that at a minimum, the reason why women live so much longer than men today however not as previously, has to be due to the fact that certain fundamental non-biological factors have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and تحاميل مهبلية relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are other issues 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. We can see that all countries are above the diagonal parity line - this means that in all countries baby girls can expect to live longer than a new boy.1

Interestingly, this chart shows that while the female advantage exists in all countries, global differences are significant. In Russia women have a longer life span than males; while in Bhutan the gap is just half one year.

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In the richer countries, the women's advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's examine how the female advantage in longevity has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancy at the time of birth in the US in the years 1790-2014. Two distinct features stand out.

First, there's an upward trend. Both 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.

Second, the gap is widening: While the advantage of women in life expectancy used to be tiny however, it has grown significantly in the past.

You can check if these principles are also applicable to other countries that have information by clicking on the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.