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's the reason women live longer than men? And why has this advantage gotten larger over time? There isn't much evidence and we only have incomplete answers. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all play a role in the fact that women have longer lives than men, However, we're not sure what the contribution of each one of these factors is.

We know that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. But it is not due to the fact that certain biological or non-biological factors have changed. These are the factors that are changing. Some are well known and 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. As you can see, every country is above the diagonal parity line ; it means that in all nations the newborn girl is likely to live for longer than a new boy.1

Interestingly, this chart shows that, كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور while the advantage for women exists everywhere, the global differences are significant. In Russia women are 10 years older than men, while in Bhutan the difference is just half each year.

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The female advantage in life expectancy was much lower in developed countries than it is today.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancy at the birth in the US between 1790 to 2014. Two aspects stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Both genders 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.

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

Using the option 'Change country' on the chart, confirm that the two points apply to other countries that have available information: Sweden, France and the UK.