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 much longer than men today, and why have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? There is only limited evidence and the evidence is not strong enough to make an absolute conclusion. Although we know that there are biological, behavioral and environmental factors that play an integral role in women who live longer than men, we do not know what percentage each factor plays in.

Independently of the exact amount of weight, we are aware that at a minimum, the reason why women live longer than men in the present however not as in the past, has to relate to the fact that a number of key non-biological factors have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others 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. As you can see, all countries are above the diagonal parity line , it means that in all nations that a baby girl can be expected to live longer than a new boy.1

It is interesting to note that the advantage of women is present everywhere, country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than men; in Bhutan the gap is just half a year.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was much lower in rich countries than it is now.

Let's now look at how the female advantage in terms of longevity has changed over time. The next chart shows the male and female lifespans at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two areas stand out.

There is an upward trend: Men and women in the US have a much longer life span longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, علامات الحمل بولد [funny post] the gap is growing: Although the female advantage in life expectancy used to be tiny It has significantly increased over time.

You can confirm that these principles are also applicable to other countries that have data by clicking on the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, علامات الحمل بولد and Sweden.