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. What is the reason women live longer than men? Why is this difference growing as time passes? There is only limited evidence and the evidence is not strong enough to make an unambiguous conclusion. Although we know that there are biological, psychological and environmental variables which play a significant role in women living longer than males, it isn't clear how much each one contributes.

We are aware that women live longer than men, regardless of weight. However this is not because of certain biological or non-biological factors have changed. What are these new factors? 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, اوضاع الجماع 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 اوضاع الجماع women. We can see that every country is over the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl in all countries can anticipate to live longer than her older brother.

The chart below shows that although there is a women's advantage in all countries, the differences across countries could be significant. In Russia women are 10 years older than men. In Bhutan the gap is just half each year.

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In wealthy countries, the female advantage in longevity used to be smaller
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below shows men and women's life expectancies at the time of birth in the US between 1790 to 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Both men 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.

The gap is increasing: While the advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was quite small however, it has grown significantly over time.

If you select the option "Change country in the chart, you will be able to verify that these two points apply to the other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.