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 makes women live much longer than men today and how does this benefit increase in the past? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to reach a definitive conclusion. We are aware that behavioral, biological and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women live longer than men; however, we aren't sure how strong the relative contribution of each one of these factors is.

We know that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. But this isn't due to the fact that certain biological or non-biological factors have changed. What are these factors that have changed? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others 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, all countries are above the diagonal line of parity - this means in all countries that a baby girl can be expected to live longer than a newborn boy.1

It is interesting to note that, while the advantage for women exists in all countries, كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور cross-country differences are large. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan, the difference is just half a year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was much lower in the richer countries than it is today.
Let's now look at how the advantage of women in longevity has changed over time. The chart below shows male and female life expectancies when they were born in the US during the period 1790 to 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

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.

The gap is increasing: While the advantage of women in life expectancy was very small however, it has grown significantly with time.

By selecting 'Change Country from the chart, you are able to verify that these two points apply to other countries that have available information: Sweden, France and the UK.