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's the reason women have a longer life span than men? Why is this difference growing over time? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn't strong enough to make an informed conclusion. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral and environmental variables that all play a role in women's longevity more than men, we do not know what percentage each factor plays in.

In spite of how much weight, we know that at least part of the reason why women live so much longer than men however not as previously, is to have to do with the fact that some significant non-biological elements have changed. These are the factors that are changing. 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 women. We can see that every country is over the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl in all countries can expect to live longer than her brother.

Interestingly, this chart shows that the advantage of women exists in all countries, global differences are significant. In Russia, women live 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of less that half a year.

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In countries with high incomes, the women's advantage in longevity was not as great.
Let's examine how the gender advantage in life expectancy has changed over time. The next chart compares male and female life expectancies when they were born in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Both genders in America have longer lives than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, اضيق وضعية للجماع the gap is widening: While the advantage of women in life expectancy used to be extremely small but it has risen significantly over time.

It is possible to verify that these principles are also applicable to other countries with data by clicking the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.