Why Women Are More Likely To 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. Why do women live so longer than men, and why is this difference growing over time? There is only limited evidence and العاب زوجية the evidence isn't sufficient to support an informed conclusion. While we are aware that there are behavioral, العاب زوجية biological, and environmental factors which play a significant role in women living longer than males, it isn't clear what percentage each factor plays in.

In spite of the precise weight, we know that at least a portion of the reason why women live so much longer than men do today but not in the past, has to relate to the fact that certain 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. Certain 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, 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, every country is above the diagonal line of parity - this means that in all countries a newborn girl can expect to live for longer than a new boy.1

This chart is interesting in that it shows that while the female advantage exists across all countries, the country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women are 10 years older than men; in Bhutan the difference is just half one year.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was much lower in the richer countries than it is now.
Let's examine how the advantage of women in life expectancy has changed over time. The chart below shows men and women's life expectancies when they were born in the US in the years 1790 to 2014. Two points stand out.

There is an upward trend. Men and women in America live longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is growing: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy used to be quite small, it has increased substantially over time.

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