THE TRUTH BY JENNIFER SMITH Thank goodness for good friends as we age. THE TRUTH ABOUT FEMALE LONGEVITY Anyone who has visited a retirement home knows it: Women live longer than men. The reasons why are not as obvious 38 FA L L 2017 Women have always had longer life spans than men. FALSE. Beltran-Sanchez used data back to the 1700s to examine the life-span disparity and found that women began to live longer than men beginning in the 1800s. "We tend to think this is something that has been happening throughout our history, but [it wasn't] until we looked at this data that we realized that it's fairly recent." Researchers found that in the late 1800s, men began dying of heart disease (and stroke) at a greater rate as female death rates decreased. PHOTO BY GETTY/E+ Women: They outlive, they outlast. Globally, women have an average life expectancy that's about 4.6 years longer than men's. And they live longer than men in every country in the world. It's been known for years, but scientists still are trying to figure out exactly why it is. Here, Hiram Beltran-Sanchez, PhD, a researcher who focuses on demographics and health, helps us sort out what we know and have recently come to understand about female longevity. TRUE OR FALSE: