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 longer than men, and why has this advantage increased over time? The evidence is limited and we have only limited solutions. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological and environmental factors which play a significant role in women who live longer than men, we do not know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

It is known that women live longer than men, regardless of weight. However this is not due to the fact that certain non-biological aspects have changed. What are these new factors? 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 - this means that in all countries the newborn girl is likely to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

This graph shows that although there is a women's advantage across all countries, differences between countries can be substantial. In Russia women are 10 years older than men. In Bhutan the difference is just half one year.

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In countries with high incomes, the female advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the men and women's life expectancies at birth in the US from 1790 until 2014. Two distinct features stand out.

There is an upward trend. Men and women in America live longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The second is that there is an ever-widening gap: female advantage in life expectancy used be very modest however it increased dramatically during the last century.

Using the option 'Change country in the chart, Www.freakyexhibits.net/index.php/User:AllisonLeflore5 (great site) you can determine if these two points are applicable to the other countries having available data: Sweden, France and the UK.