Why are women living 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 is the reason women live much longer than men today and how has this advantage increased over time? The evidence isn't conclusive and we have only partial answers. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women have longer life spans than men, however, we do not know how much the influence of each one of these factors is.

Independently of the exact number of pounds, we know that at least part of the reason why women live longer than men but not previously, has to relate to the fact that certain significant non-biological elements have changed. What are these factors that have changed? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others are more complicated. 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, all countries are above the diagonal parity line ; it means that in all nations that a baby girl can be expected to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

This graph shows that even though women enjoy an advantage throughout the world, افضل شامبو وبلسم the differences between countries are often significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than males; while in Bhutan the gap is less than half each year.

__S.17__
__S.19__
In rich countries the advantage of women in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The following chart shows the male and female lifespans when they were born in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men and women in America live longer than they were 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is growing: Although the female advantage in life expectancy was tiny but it has risen significantly in the past.

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