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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 are more likely to live longer than men? And why is this difference growing in the past? We only have partial evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to reach an absolute conclusion. We know there are behavioral, biological and environmental variables which play a significant role in women's longevity more than men, we do not know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

In spite of the precise amount, we can say that at least part of the reason why women live so much longer than men in the present, but not in the past, is to have to do with the fact that a number of significant non-biological elements have changed. What are these changing factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Certain 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 Deletedbyfacebook.com/profile.php?id=3077440 women. It is clear that every country is over the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl in all countries can be expected to live for longer than her older brother.

The chart below shows that even though women enjoy an advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries can be significant. In Russia women are 10 years older 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 was previously smaller.
Let's look at how the female advantage in longevity has changed over time. The next chart shows male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two specific points stand out.

First, there's an upward trend. Both men 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 widening: While the female advantage in life expectancy was once quite small It has significantly increased with time.

It is possible to verify that these principles are also applicable to other countries with data by clicking the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.