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 makes women live longer than men and how has this advantage increased in the past? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to reach an absolute conclusion. We are aware that behavioral, biological and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women are healthier than men; but we don't know exactly how strong the relative contribution of each factor is.

In spite of the precise number of pounds, we know that at least a portion of the reason why women live so much longer than men today and not previously, is to relate to the fact that some key non-biological factors have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others 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. It is clear that all countries are above the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl in every country can be expected to live for longer than her older brother.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that the advantage of women exists in all countries, global differences are significant. In Russia, women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the difference is just half a year.

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In the richer countries, the female advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The next chart shows male and recent Glorynote blog post (full report) female life expectancy at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two areas stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. as well as women in the US are living much, much longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is getting wider: Although the female advantage in terms of life expectancy was very small It has significantly increased in the past.

Using the option 'Change country' on the chart, you will be able to verify that these two points apply to the other countries having available information: Sweden, France and the UK.