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’s the main reason women live longer than men? And why has this advantage gotten larger over time? We have only a small amount of evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to draw an absolute conclusion. Although we know that there are biological, psychological as well as environmental factors which play a significant role in women who live longer than men, we don’t know what percentage each factor plays in.

In spite of how much amount of weight, we are aware that at a minimum, the reason why women live so much longer than men do today and not previously, has to have to do with the fact that some significant non-biological elements have changed. What are these changing factors? 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, 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 new boy.1

This graph shows that even though women enjoy an advantage across all countries, differences between countries could be significant. In Russia, women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan, the difference is less that half a year.

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The female advantage in life expectancy was less in developed countries than it is today.

Let’s examine how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The chart below shows male and female life expectancies at birth in the US between 1790 to 2014. Two distinct features stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men as well as women in the US are living much, much longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, افضل كريم للشعر the gap is growing: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy was tiny but it has risen significantly with time.

You can check if these are applicable to other countries with data by clicking the «Change country» option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.


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