Difference between revisions of "Why Do Women Live Longer Than Men"

Revision as of 18:07, 7 January 2022

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 live longer than men, and why has this advantage increased in the past? The evidence is limited and we're only able to provide some solutions. We know that behavioral, biological and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women live longer than men; however, we do not know how strong the relative contribution of each of these factors is.

In spite of the weight, we know that at least part of the reason women live so much longer than men however not as previously, is to do with the fact that a number of important non-biological aspects have changed. What are these changing factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Other are more complicated. For example, صبغ الشعر بالاسود 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. As we can see, every country is above the diagonal parity line - it means that in all nations the newborn girl is likely to live longer than a newborn boy.1

The chart above shows that although the female advantage exists in all countries, cross-country differences are large. In Russia women have a longer life span than males; while in Bhutan the difference is just half an hour.

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The advantage for women in life expectancy was much lower in the richer countries that it is today.
Let's look at how the gender advantage in life expectancy has changed over time. The chart below shows gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at birth in the US between 1790 until 2014. Two areas stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Women and صبغ الشعر بالاسود men living in America are living longer than they were a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is increasing: While the female advantage in life expectancy used to be quite small It has significantly increased over time.

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