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 live much longer than men today and how has this advantage increased in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we’re only able to provide limited answers. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women live longer than men; however, we do not know how significant the impact of each of these factors is.
In spite of the precise weight, we know that at least a portion of the reason women live so much longer than men in the present however not as previously, is to relate to the fact that some significant non-biological elements have changed. What are the factors that are changing? 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, Byte-on.org.au/index.php/Why_Women_Live_Longer_Than_Men 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. We can see that every country is above the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl in every country can be expected to live for longer than her younger brother.
This chart is interesting in that it shows that, while the advantage for women exists everywhere, the difference between countries is huge. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of just half a year.
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The female advantage in life expectancy was smaller in the richer countries as compared to the present.
Let’s take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The following chart shows the men and women’s life expectancies at the time of birth in the US between 1790 until 2014. Two points stand out.
First, there is an upward trend. Both genders in America have longer lives than they were a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.
The gap is getting wider: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy was once very small, it has increased substantially over time.
By selecting ‘Change Country by country’ in the chart, you can check that these two points also apply to the other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.
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