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 are more likely to live longer than men? What is the reason the advantage has grown over time? We only have partial evidence and the evidence is not strong enough to make an informed conclusion. Although we know that there are biological, psychological and environmental variables which all play a part in women who live longer than males, we aren't sure what percentage each factor plays in.

Independently of the exact amount, we can say that at a minimum, the reason women live longer than men do today, but not in the past, has to have to do with the fact that some significant non-biological elements have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Other 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, اضيق وضعية للجماع 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 every country is over the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl in all countries can expect to live longer than her older brother.

The chart above shows that although the female advantage exists in all countries, difference between countries is huge. In Russia women are 10 years older than males; while in Bhutan the gap is just half each year.

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In rich countries the longevity advantage for women was not as great.
Let's examine how the advantage of women in longevity has changed with time. The next chart plots male and female life expectancy at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two things stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Women and men in America have longer lives than they used to a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is growing: Although the female advantage in life expectancy was once tiny It has significantly increased with time.

By selecting 'Change Country in the chart, verify that these two points also apply to other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.