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. Why do women live more than men do today, and why have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? There is only limited evidence and the evidence is not strong enough to make an absolute conclusion. While we are aware that there are biological, psychological and environmental variables which all play a part in the longevity of women over men, we do not know how much each factor contributes.

Independently of the exact weight, we know that a large portion of the reason why women live so much longer than men in the present and not in the past, has to do with the fact that several significant non-biological elements have changed. These are the factors that are changing. 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, 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 above the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl in all countries can be expected to live for longer than her brothers.

This chart illustrates that, although there is a women's advantage everywhere, cross-country differences can be significant. In Russia, women live for 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of just half a year.

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In the richer countries, the longevity advantage for women was smaller
Let's look at how the gender advantage in life expectancy has changed over time. The next chart compares the male and كيفية ممارسة العلاقة الزوجية فى الاسلام female lifespans when they were born in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two things stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Women and كيفية ممارسة العلاقة الزوجية فى الاسلام men 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 terms of life expectancy used be very modest however, it has increased significantly over the last century.

Using the option 'Change country' on the chart, you can check that these two points apply to the other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.