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? What is the reason does this benefit increase in the past? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn’t sufficient to draw an unambiguous conclusion. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral and environmental variables which play a significant role in women’s longevity more than men, we don’t know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

In spite of the precise amount of weight, we are aware that at a minimum, the reason why women live longer than men do today but not previously, has to relate to the fact that several significant non-biological elements have changed. These are the factors that are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Other 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. We can see that every country is over the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl from any country can anticipate to live longer than her brother.

This chart illustrates that, even though women enjoy an advantage everywhere, cross-country differences are often significant. In Russia, تحاميل مهبلية women live 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan, the difference is less that half a year.

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In rich countries the longevity advantage for women was smaller

Let’s look at how the gender advantage in terms of longevity has changed over time. The chart below shows men and women’s life expectancies at the birth in the US during the period 1790 until 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

There is an upward trend. Women and men in America have longer lives than they were 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is growing: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy was once extremely small however, it has grown significantly in the past.

You can verify 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.