Why Women 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 in the present and why is this difference growing in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we have only some answers. While we are aware that there are biological, تحاميل مهبلية psychological as well as environmental factors that play an integral role in women living longer than men, we do not know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

We have learned that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. But, this is not because of certain biological factors have changed. The factors changing are numerous. 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, all countries are above the diagonal parity line , this means in all countries baby girls can expect to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart shows that, even though women enjoy an advantage across all countries, differences between countries can be significant. In Russia, women live 10 years more than males. In Bhutan the gap is just half a year.

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In the richer countries, the advantage of women in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below shows gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at the birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Both genders living in America are living longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is growing: Although the female advantage in life expectancy was extremely small but it has risen significantly with time.

By selecting 'Change Country in the chart, verify that these two points apply to the other countries having available information: Sweden, France and the UK.