Why Do Women Live Longer Than Men

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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. Why do women live longer than men and how has this advantage increased in the past? We have only a small amount of evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to support an informed conclusion. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological as well as environmental factors that play an integral role in the longevity of women over men, we don't know how much each one contributes.

In spite of the amount of weight, we are aware that at least part of the reason women live longer than men but not in the past, اضيق وضعية للجماع has to relate to the fact that a number of important non-biological aspects have changed. What are these factors that have changed? 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, 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 اضيق وضعية للجماع men and women. As you can see, every country is above the diagonal parity line - it means that in all nations the newborn girl is likely to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart is interesting in that it shows that, while the advantage for women exists in all countries, cross-country differences are large. In Russia, women live 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan the difference is just half a year.

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The female advantage in terms of life expectancy was lower in developed countries as compared to the present.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below shows male and female life expectancy at the time of birth in the US between 1790-2014. Two areas stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. and women in the US have a much longer life span longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, there's a widening gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be very small however it increased dramatically in the past century.

By selecting 'Change Country in the chart, you are able to check that these two points are also applicable to other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.