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

Revision as of 15:08, 9 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's the reason women live longer than men? Why has this advantage gotten larger over time? We only have a few clues and the evidence is not sufficient to reach an informed conclusion. Although we know that there are biological, behavioral, and environmental factors which play a significant role in women who live longer than men, we do not know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

We know that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. However, this is not due to the fact that certain biological factors have changed. What are these factors that have changed? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others are more complicated. 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, especially for survivors, ابر التخسيس 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, all countries are above the diagonal parity line ; this means in all countries baby girls can expect to live longer than a new boy.1

This chart illustrates that, although there is a women's advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries are often significant. In Russia women are 10 years older than men; in Bhutan the difference is less than half one year.

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The advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was lower in the richer countries than it is now.
Let's examine how the advantage of women in longevity has changed with time. The chart below shows male and female life expectancies at birth in the US during the period 1790-2014. Two points stand out.

First, there's an upward trend: Men and women in the US live a lot, much longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is getting wider: Although the advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was very small however, it has grown significantly over time.

Using the option 'Change country' on the chart, confirm that the two points are applicable to the other countries with available information: ابر التخسيس Sweden, France and the UK.