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. Why do women live longer than men in the present and how does this benefit increase over time? The evidence is limited and we only have incomplete answers. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral as well as environmental factors that play an integral role in women living longer than men, we do not know how much each one contributes.<\/p>\n
In spite of the number of pounds, we know that at least part of the reason women live longer than men today however not as previously, has to have to do with the fact that some significant non-biological elements have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Certain 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.<\/p>\n
Everywhere in the world women tend to live longer than men<\/p>\n
The first chart below shows life expectancy at birth for men and women. It is clear that every country is above the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl from any country can be expected to live for longer than her younger brother.<\/p>\n
This chart is interesting in that it shows that although the female advantage exists in all countries, global differences are significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men; in Bhutan the gap is just half an hour.<\/p>\n
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In the richer countries, the female advantage in longevity used to be smaller<\/p>\n
Let’s look at how the female advantage in life expectancy has changed over time. The following chart shows male and female life expectancies<\/a> at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two specific points stand out.<\/p>\n First, there’s an upward trend. Both men and women in the US are living much, much longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.<\/p>\n There is an ever-widening gap: female advantage in terms of life expectancy used to be very modest however it increased dramatically over the course of the last century.<\/p>\n