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 makes women live much longer than men today, and why have these advantages gotten bigger over time? We only have a few clues and the evidence isn’t sufficient to reach a definitive conclusion. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women are healthier than men; However, we’re not sure what the contribution to each of these variables is.

In spite of the amount, we can say that at a minimum, the reason women live longer than men today and not in the past, is to have to do with the fact that some key non-biological factors have changed. These are the factors that are changing. 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, https://highresolutionmusic.com/asset/aHR0cHM6Ly9nbG9yeW5vdGUuY29tLyVEOCVCNSVEOCVBOCVEOCVCQS0lRDglQTclRDklODQlRDglQjQlRDglQjklRDglQjEtJUQ4JUE4JUQ4JUE3JUQ5JTg0JUQ4JUEzJUQ4JUIzJUQ5JTg4JUQ4JUFGLw 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. It is clear that every country is above the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl in all countries can expect to live longer than her brothers.

This chart shows that, even though women enjoy an advantage everywhere, cross-country differences are often significant. In Russia women have a longer life span than men. In Bhutan the difference is less than half one year.

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In rich countries the longevity advantage for women was smaller

Let’s examine how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancy at birth in the US in the years 1790 to 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

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

Second, there’s an increasing gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used to be very small but it increased substantially during the last century.

You can confirm that these are applicable to other countries with data by clicking on the “Change country” option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.