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 makes women live longer than men and why does this benefit increase over time? The evidence is sketchy and we only have limited answers. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological, and environmental factors that play an integral role in the longevity of women over men, we do not know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

We have learned that women live longer than men, regardless of their weight. However this isn't due to the fact that certain non-biological aspects have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Certain are more complicated. For علامات الحمل بولد 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. As you can see, all countries are above the diagonal parity line ; which means that in every country a newborn girl can expect to live for longer than a new boy.1

It is interesting to note that while the female advantage exists everywhere, the global differences are significant. In Russia women are 10 years older than men, while in Bhutan the difference is less than half an hour.

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The advantage women had in terms of life expectancy was lower in rich countries that it is today.
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The next chart compares the male and female lifespans when they were born in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two specific points stand out.

First, علامات الحمل بولد there is an upward trend. Women and men 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.

The gap is getting wider: Although the female advantage in life expectancy used to be very small It has significantly increased over time.

By selecting 'Change Country from the chart, you will be able to check that these two points apply to other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.