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 women have a longer life span than men? And why has this advantage gotten larger in the past? The evidence is limited and we have only incomplete solutions. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological and environmental factors that all play a role in women living longer than men, we don't know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

We have learned that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. However this is not due to the fact that certain biological factors have changed. These factors are changing. 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, افضل شامبو وبلسم (browse around this site) 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 every country is above the diagonal line of parity - this means that in all countries a newborn girl can expect to live longer than a new boy.1

This chart illustrates that, although there is a women's advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries can be substantial. In Russia women live 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan the difference is just half a year.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was much lower in rich countries that it is today.
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The following chart shows the life expectancy of males and females at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two aspects stand out.

First, there is an upward trend: Men and 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 widening: While the advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was quite small It has significantly increased with time.

You can confirm that these principles are also applicable to other countries with data by clicking the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.