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 have a longer life span than men? And how the advantage has grown over time? We only have a few clues and the evidence isn't sufficient to draw an absolute conclusion. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women live longer than men; but we don't know exactly what the contribution of each one of these factors is.

In spite of the amount, we can say that at least a portion of the reason women live longer than men and not in the past, is to do with the fact that certain key non-biological factors have changed. What are these new factors? 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, https://www.atari-wiki.com/index.php/User:CarlH729217402 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 means that a newborn girl from every country could 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 can be substantial. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the gap is less than half each year.

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In rich countries the female advantage in longevity used to be smaller
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancy at the birth in the US between 1790-2014. Two points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Women and men in the United States live longer than they used to 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is increasing: While the female advantage in life expectancy was quite small It has significantly increased over time.

When you click on the option "Change country' on the chart, confirm that the two points are applicable to other countries that have available information: Sweden, France and the UK.