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 why does this benefit increase in the past? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn’t sufficient to reach an unambiguous conclusion. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological as well as environmental factors which play a significant role in women living longer than males, we aren’t sure how much each factor contributes.

We are aware that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. But, this is not due to the fact that certain non-biological factors have changed. These variables are evolving. 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, every country is above the diagonal parity line ; it means that in all nations the newborn girl is likely to live longer than a newborn boy.1

Interestingly, صبغ الشعر بالاسود this chart shows that although the female advantage is present everywhere, difference between countries is huge. In Russia women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan the gap is less that half a year.

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The female advantage in life expectancy was smaller in rich countries than it is now.

Let’s examine how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancy at the birth in the US during the period 1790-2014. Two aspects stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men and women in the United States live longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is increasing: While the female advantage in terms of life expectancy was quite small, it has increased substantially in the past.

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