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’s the main reason women live longer than men? And why has this advantage gotten larger over time? There isn’t much evidence and we only have limited answers. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological and environmental factors which all play a part in women’s longevity more than men, we do not know how much each factor contributes.

In spite of how much number of pounds, we know that at least part of the reason women live so much longer than men, but not previously, has to relate to the fact that certain important non-biological aspects have changed. What are these factors that have changed? 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. It is clear that every country is above the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl from every country could anticipate to live longer than her younger brother.

The chart above shows that, while the advantage for Glorynote.com women exists everywhere, the cross-country differences are large. In Russia, women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan the gap is only half a year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was much lower in countries with higher incomes than it is now.

Let’s look at how the female advantage in longevity has changed with time. The next chart compares male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Both men as well as women in the US have a much longer life span longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is getting wider: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy was extremely small, it has increased substantially over time.

You can check if these principles are also applicable to other countries with data by clicking the «Change country» option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.