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 is the reason women are more likely to live longer than men? And how is this difference growing as time passes? We only have partial evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to reach an absolute conclusion. We know there are behavioral, biological and environmental factors which play a significant role in women living longer than males, it isn’t clear how much each factor contributes.

In spite of the precise weight, we know that at a minimum, Superrestauracje.pl/redirect/aHR0cHM6Ly9nbG9yeW5vdGUuY29tLyVEOCVCMiVEOSU4QSVEOSU4OCVEOCVBQS0lRDglQUElRDglQjclRDklODglRDklOEElRDklODQtJUQ4JUE3JUQ5JTg0JUQ4JUI0JUQ4JUI5JUQ4JUIxLw the reason why women live longer than men do today, but not previously, is to do with the fact that some key non-biological factors have changed. What are the factors that are changing? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are other issues that are more intricate. 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. It is clear that every country is over the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl in all countries can be expected to live for longer than her brothers.

The chart below shows that although women have an advantage in all countries, the differences across countries could be significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of only half a year.

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In the richer countries, the women’s advantage in longevity was smaller

Let’s see how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The next chart shows male and female life expectancy at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two things stand out.

There is an upward trend. Men and women in America live longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The second is that there is an increasing gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used to be very small, but it grew substantially over the course of the last century.

When you click on the option «Change country from the chart, you can determine if these two points are also applicable to the other countries having available information: Sweden, France and the UK.