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 makes women live more than men do today, and why has this advantage increased in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we’re left with only some answers. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women live longer than men; However, we’re not sure what the contribution to each of these variables is.

We have learned that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. But, this is not because of certain non-biological aspects have changed. What are these changing factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, Byte-on.org.au/index.php/Why_Women_Live_Longer_Than_Men like the fact that men smoke more often. Other 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. We can see that every country is above the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl in every country can be expected to live for longer than her brother.

This chart illustrates that, while there is a female advantage everywhere, cross-country differences can be significant. In Russia women are 10 years older than men; in Bhutan the difference is less than half a year.

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In rich countries the women’s advantage in longevity was previously smaller.

Let’s examine how the advantage of women in life expectancy has changed over time. The next chart compares the life expectancy of males and females at birth in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two things stand out.

There is an upward trend. Women and men in the United States live 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 was quite small however, it has grown significantly with time.

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