Women outlive men in almost every country. On average, women are expected to live 4 years longer than men. The life expectancy (the average number of years a person will live from birth) of men is 63.7 years. The life expectancy of women is 67.8 years.

The life expectancy of women has gone up over the past few years. In 1992, the average woman lived to be 62.9 years in developing countries compared to 53.7 years in 1970. In industrialized countries, women's average life expectancy in 1992 was 79.4 years, up from 74.2 years in 1970.

Simply, life expectancy refers to the number of years we are "expected" to live. Of course, there is no way to predict how long each person is going to live at the time they are born. But if we take an average of how long people have lived, it gives us an indication of how long a certain cross section of a population might live.

Life expectancy seems to be directly tied to income. The countries with the largest increase in life expectancy were also among the countries with the most rapid increase in their income per capita.

Who Lives Longer continues...