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 is the reason women live more than men do today and why has this advantage increased in the past? We only have partial evidence and the evidence is not strong enough to make an absolute conclusion. We know that behavioral, biological and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women have longer life spans than men, however, we aren't sure how significant the impact to each of these variables is.

We are aware that women are living longer than males, regardless of weight. But 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 all countries are over the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl in every country can expect to live longer than her brother.

This chart illustrates that, even though women enjoy an advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries could be significant. In Russia women are 10 years older than men. In Bhutan the difference is less than half a year.

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In countries with high incomes, the advantage of women in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's examine how the gender advantage in life expectancy has changed over time. The next chart compares the life expectancy of males and females at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two aspects stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Both men as well as women in the US are living much, كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور much longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is growing: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy was quite small but it has risen significantly over time.

If you select the option "Change country from the chart, you can confirm that the two points are also applicable to the other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.