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 so longer than men and how have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? We have only a small amount of evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to reach a definitive conclusion. We know there are behavioral, biological and environmental variables that all play a role in women’s longevity more than men, we don’t know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

Independently of the exact amount of weight, we are aware that at least part of the reason women live so much longer than men do today but not previously, is to be due to the fact that a number of 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. Some 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, every country is above the diagonal parity line ; this means that in all countries that a baby girl can be expected to live for longer than a new boy.1

The chart above shows that although the female advantage exists across all countries, Wmsj.org.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=77401&do=profile&from=space the country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of only half a year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was smaller in rich countries than it is today.

We will now examine how the gender advantage in longevity has changed over time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancy at the birth in the US from 1790 until 2014. Two aspects stand out.

First, there’s 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.

The gap is widening: While the advantage of women in life expectancy was once very small, it has increased substantially in the past.

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