Why 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's the reason why women live longer than men? What is the reason has this advantage gotten larger over time? There is only limited evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to draw an absolute conclusion. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women are healthier than men; however, we do not know what the contribution to each of these variables is.

In spite of the precise amount, we can say that at least part of the reason women live longer than men today but not previously, has to be due to the fact that several key 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 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 تحاميل مهبلية (on front page) men and women. As we can see, all countries are above the diagonal parity line - it means that in all nations that a baby girl can be expected to live longer than a new boy.1

It is interesting to note that while the female advantage exists across all countries, the cross-country differences are large. In Russia women are 10 years older than men; in Bhutan the difference is less than half a year.

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In rich countries the women's advantage in longevity was not as great.
Let's look at how the female advantage in longevity has changed over time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US during the period 1790-2014. Two specific points stand out.

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

There is a widening gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used be quite small however it increased dramatically over the course of the last century.

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