Difference between revisions of "Why Women Are More Likely To Live Longer Than Men"

Revision as of 16:44, 8 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. Why do women live so longer than men in the present and how does this benefit increase in the past? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to reach a definitive conclusion. Although we know that there are biological, behavioral as well as environmental factors that all play a role in women's longevity more than males, it isn't clear the extent to which each factor plays a role.

We are aware that women are living longer than males, regardless of weight. But this isn't because of certain non-biological factors have changed. These variables are evolving. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Some are more complex. 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, اوضاع الجماع 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 you can see, every country is above the diagonal line of parity - it means that in all nations the newborn girl is likely to live longer than a new boy.1

It is interesting to note that the advantage of women is present everywhere, country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than men; in Bhutan the gap is less than half an hour.

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The female advantage in terms of life expectancy was lower in the richer countries as compared to the present.
Let's examine how the female advantage in life expectancy has changed over time. The next chart compares the male and female lifespans at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two things stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Both genders in the United States live 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 advantage of women in life expectancy was extremely small however, it has grown significantly over time.

You can verify that these points are also applicable to other countries with data by selecting the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.