Why Are Women Living 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 are more likely to live longer than men? What is the reason does this benefit increase over time? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to reach an informed conclusion. We know there are biological, psychological, and environmental factors which play a significant role in the longevity of women over men, we do not know how much each one contributes.

We have learned that women live longer than men, regardless of weight. However, this is not due to the fact that certain non-biological aspects have changed. These variables are evolving. 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. We can see that every country is above the diagonal parity line - which means that in every country a newborn girl can expect to live longer than a new boy.1

The chart above shows that although the female advantage exists in all countries, global differences are significant. In Russia, women live 10 years more than males. In Bhutan the difference is less that half a year.

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The advantage for women in life expectancy was much lower in rich countries than it is today.
Let's look at how the advantage of women in longevity has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the men and women's life expectancies at the time of birth in the US from 1790 until 2014. Two specific points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Both genders 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.

Second, there's an increasing gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used to be quite small however it increased dramatically over the course of the last century.

You can check if the points you've listed are applicable to other countries that have data by selecting the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, كيفية ممارسة العلاقة الزوجية فى الاسلام France, and Sweden.