Concrete, if done right, can last a very long time. There are section of I-85 along the VA/NC line that are the original concrete poured in 1965. It's getting pretty beat up now and is scheduled for replacement, but I cannot think of a single asphalt road that has held up that well. There were section of I-95 near Richmond that have recently been repaired (paved with asphalt) that were the original concrete from 45 years ago.

I will note that there are two tricky aspects to asphalt that make it less durable. First, the wide range of temperatures it has to endure and flex with. By it's nature, even though it sets with cooling, it still flexes much more than concrete. Any asphalt is a compromise over a range of temperatures. You can't take asphalt used in central NC and use it Minnesota (well, maybe you can with global warming) or visa versa. Similarly, you have some control over the degree of flex by the amount of fines you put in the asphalt paving material.

Top coat asphalt always has a certain percentage of fines but if your asphalt (binder) is properly formulated for the region and the temperature characteristics, too many fines allows the asphalt paving to flex too much. That rippling effect that you sometimes see at traffic lights is caused by too many fines, too much asphalt or improperly formulated asphalt (or some combination). It also takes much more road bed preparation.

It's also more difficult to recycle concrete compared to recycling asphalt paving materials (though the practical limit is about 35% recycle). And asphalt, as the bottoms of the distillation and cracking process is, essentially, a waste byproduct of petroleum processing. I haven't checked the price recently, but the wholesale price of aspahlt was far below the cost of oil. As more and more refiners install coker units, less and less of this material will be available and the supply and demand pressures will force the price up in addition to the underlying cost of oil.

Current prices taken from RS Means Cost Estimate Book:
Asphalt-
8" Stone Base @ 15.90 SY
2" Binder Course (asphalt) @ 7.30 SY
1.5" Wearing Course @ 6.20 SY
or
Concrete-
7" Unreinforced @ 34.50 SY
+ welded wire reinforcement @ 4.21 SY
...
So the prices are close now (keep in mind asphalt has been much cheaper in up front costs for a very long time). This isn't perfect by any stretch either, both need some compaction for the subbase which is not included, and asphalt needs more base prep than concrete. WW is a pretty sorry excuse for steel reinforcement, but the only purpose of that is to keep pieces from seperating...it doesn't make the concrete stronger...but I digress...