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 makes women live more than men do today, and why is this difference growing over time? There is only limited evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to support an absolute conclusion. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women live longer than men; however, we do not know how strong the relative contribution of each one of these factors is.

We know that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. But this is not because of certain non-biological factors have changed. These variables are evolving. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others 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 men and women. As you can see, every country is above the diagonal parity line - which means that in every country that a baby girl can be expected to live longer than a newborn boy.1

This graph shows that although women have an advantage throughout the world, زيوت تطويل الشعر the differences between countries are often significant. In Russia, women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the difference is less that half a year.

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The advantage women had in terms of life expectancy was lower in developed countries that it is today.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The following chart shows the men and women's life expectancies at the birth in the US during the period 1790 to 2014. Two distinct features stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men and women in America live longer than they used to 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The second is that there is an increase in the gap between men and women: female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be quite small however it increased dramatically during the last century.

You can verify that the points you've listed are applicable to other countries with data by selecting the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.