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 live longer than men? And why the advantage has grown in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we have only incomplete solutions. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women are healthier than men; but we don't know exactly how strong the relative contribution of each factor is.

In spite of the amount, we can say that at least part of the reason why women live so much longer than men do today but not previously, is to have to do with the fact that several important non-biological aspects have changed. These variables are evolving. 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, ماذا يحدث بين الزوجين في الحمام بالصور 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. It is clear that all countries are over the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl from any country can anticipate to live longer than her younger brother.

This graph shows that although women have an advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries can be significant. In Russia women are 10 years older than men. In Bhutan the gap is less than half a year.

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The advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was lower in countries with higher incomes that 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 gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two specific points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Women and men living in America are living longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, there's a widening gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used to be quite small however it increased dramatically over the last century.

Using the option 'Change country from the chart, you will be able to confirm that the two points are also applicable to other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.