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 are more likely to live longer than men? And how has this advantage gotten larger as time passes? There is only limited evidence and the evidence is not strong enough to make an informed conclusion. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women live longer than men; However, we're not sure what the contribution to each of these variables is.

In spite of how much amount, we can say that a large portion of the reason women live longer than men today, but not in the past, is to have to do with the fact that several important non-biological aspects have changed. These variables are evolving. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others 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. It is clear that every country is over the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl from any country can expect to live longer than her brother.

The chart above shows that the advantage of women exists in all countries, difference between countries is huge. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than men; in Bhutan the gap is less than half a year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was much lower in developed countries that it is today.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancy at the time of birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two distinct features stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men and العاب زوجية women in the United States live longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is growing: Although the advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was quite small however, it has grown significantly in the past.

When you click on the option "Change country' on the chart, you can verify that these two points apply to other countries that have available information: Sweden, France and the UK.