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 is the reason women live more than men do today, and why has this advantage increased in the past? We only have a few clues and the evidence is not strong enough to make an absolute conclusion. We know there are biological, psychological and environmental factors which play a significant role in women who live longer than males, it isn't clear what percentage each factor plays in.

In spite of the amount of weight, we are aware that a large portion of the reason why women live longer than men today however not as previously, is to have to do with the fact that several fundamental non-biological factors have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Some are more complex. 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, العاب زوجية 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 ; it means that in all nations the newborn girl is likely to live for longer than a new boy.1

This chart illustrates that, although women have an advantage everywhere, cross-country differences could be significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the gap is only half a year.

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In the richer countries, the women's advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancies at the time of birth in the US in the years 1790 until 2014. Two points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men and women in America have longer lives than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is an ever-widening gap: female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be very small however it increased dramatically over the last century.

You can verify that these points are also applicable to other countries that have data by selecting the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.