Why do 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 why women live longer than men? And how does this benefit increase over time? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn’t sufficient to support a definitive conclusion. While we are aware that there are biological, psychological, and environmental factors that play an integral role in women who live longer than males, we aren’t sure what percentage each factor plays in.

We know that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. However it is not due to the fact that certain non-biological factors have changed. What are the factors that are changing? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Some 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 زيوت تطويل الشعر men and women. As you can see, all countries are above the diagonal parity line – this means that in all countries that a baby girl can be expected to live longer than a new boy.1

The chart below shows that although there is a women’s advantage everywhere, cross-country differences are often significant. In Russia women have a longer life span than men. In Bhutan the gap is less than half one year.

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In wealthy countries, the female advantage in longevity used to be smaller

Let’s see how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The following chart shows male and female life expectancy at birth in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men and women in the US are living much, much longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is getting wider: Although the female advantage in life expectancy used to be very small however, it has grown significantly in the past.

You can confirm that the points you’ve listed are applicable to other countries that have data by clicking on the “Change country” option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.