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? What is the reason is this difference growing over time? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn't strong enough to make an informed conclusion. We are aware that behavioral, biological and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women have longer lives than men, however, we aren't sure how strong the relative contribution to each of these variables is.

In spite of how much amount, we can say that at least part of the reason women live longer than men however not as previously, is to relate to the fact that several key non-biological factors have changed. What are the factors that are changing? 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, especially for تخفيض ترتيب اليكسا (vanburg.com) 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 means that a newborn girl in all countries can anticipate to live longer than her brother.

The chart above shows that, while the advantage for women exists in all countries, cross-country differences are large. In Russia women have a longer life span than males; while in Bhutan the gap is less than half one year.

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In rich countries the women's advantage in longevity used to be smaller
We will now examine the way that female advantages in longevity has changed with time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancies at the birth in the US between 1790 to 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men and women living in America are living longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is getting wider: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy was extremely small however, it has grown significantly over time.

By selecting 'Change Country' on the chart, you will be able to determine if these two points are applicable to the other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.