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 why women have a longer life span than men? And how the advantage has grown over time? There isn't much evidence and we're left with only some answers. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological, and environmental factors that play an integral role in the longevity of women over males, we aren't sure how much each factor contributes.

In spite of the precise amount of weight, we are aware that at least a portion of the reason why women live so much longer than men and not previously, صبغ الشعر بالاسود has to have to do with the fact that several fundamental non-biological factors have changed. What are these factors that have changed? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others that are more intricate. 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 above the diagonal line of parity - this means in all countries that a baby girl can be expected to live longer than a newborn boy.1

It is interesting to note that, while the advantage for women exists in all countries, difference between countries is huge. In Russia women live 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of just half a year.

__S.17__
__S.19__
In wealthy countries, the women's advantage in longevity was smaller
Let's examine how the female advantage in life expectancy has changed over time. The next chart shows male and female life expectancies at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two distinct points stand out.

There is an upward trend: Men as well as women in the US live much, much longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is getting wider: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy used to be tiny It has significantly increased over time.

When you click on the option "Change country in the chart, verify that these two points are applicable to the other countries having available data: Sweden, France and the UK.