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 does this benefit increase over time? There isn't much evidence and we have only some solutions. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral as well as environmental factors that play an integral role in the longevity of women over males, it isn't clear how much each one contributes.

It is known that women live longer than men, regardless of their weight. However, this is not due to the fact that certain biological or non-biological factors have changed. The factors changing are numerous. 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 العاب زوجية; head to the glorynote.com site, 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 ; it means that in all nations the newborn girl is likely to live longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart is interesting in that it shows that while the female advantage exists everywhere, the country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of only half a year.

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In countries with high incomes, the women's advantage in longevity was not as great.
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The following chart shows male and female life expectancy at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two things stand out.

First, there is an upward trend: Men as well as women in the US have a much longer life span longer than they did 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 was tiny, it has increased substantially over time.

By selecting 'Change Country' on the chart, you are able to determine if these two points are also applicable to other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.