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 in the present and why has this advantage increased in the past? We have only a small amount of evidence and the evidence is not strong enough to make an informed conclusion. We know there are biological, behavioral, and environmental factors which play a significant role in women who live longer than men, we do not know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

Independently of the exact amount, we can say that at least part of the reason why women live so much longer than men today and not in the past, has to relate to the fact that some fundamental non-biological factors have changed. What are the factors that are changing? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others are more complex. For example, صبغ الشعر بالاسود 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 all countries are over the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl in every country can expect to live longer than her brothers.

This graph shows that while there is a female advantage across all countries, differences between countries can be significant. In Russia, women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan the gap is only half a year.

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In the richer countries, the advantage of women in longevity used to be smaller
Let's examine how the female advantage in terms of longevity has changed over time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancies at the time of birth in the US during the period 1790 until 2014. Two points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men and women in the US have a much longer life span longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is widening: While the female advantage in life expectancy was tiny, it has increased substantially in the past.

You can confirm that these principles are also applicable to other countries that have data by clicking the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, صبغ الشعر بالاسود (Learn Even more Here) France, and Sweden.