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. Why do women live so more than men do today and how does this benefit increase in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we're left with only partial solutions. We know there are biological, behavioral as well as environmental factors that all play a role in the longevity of women over men, we do not know what percentage each factor plays in.

We are aware that women live longer than men, regardless of weight. But, this is not because of certain non-biological factors have changed. What are these factors that have changed? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are other issues 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, 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 ابر التخسيس women. It is clear that every country is over the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl in every country can expect to live longer than her brother.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that the advantage of women exists everywhere, the global differences are significant. In Russia, women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of only half a year.

__S.17__
__S.19__
The female advantage in life expectancy was much lower in the richer countries that it is today.
Let's examine how the gender advantage in longevity has changed over time. The next chart shows the life expectancy of males and females when they were born in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend: ابر التخسيس Men as well as women in the US are living much, much longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, there's an ever-widening gap: female advantage in life expectancy used to be quite small however, it has increased significantly over the last century.

If you select the option "Change country by country' in the chart, you are able to confirm that the two points are applicable to other countries that have available data: Sweden, France and the UK.