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

Revision as of 15:12, 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 is the reason women live more than men do today and why is this difference growing in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we only have partial solutions. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women live longer than men; however, we do not know what the contribution of each factor is.

Independently of the exact amount of weight, we are aware that at least a portion of the reason why women live longer than men in the present however not as previously, has to relate to the fact that some important non-biological aspects have changed. What are these factors that have changed? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others that are more intricate. 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, 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 - it means that in all nations a newborn girl can expect to live longer than a newborn boy.1

It is interesting to note that while the female advantage exists across all countries, the difference between countries is huge. In Russia women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan the gap is just half a year.

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In countries with high incomes, the women's advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's look at the way that female advantages in longevity has changed with time. The next chart plots male and female life expectancies at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two aspects stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Both men as well as women in the US live much, much longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is a widening gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be quite small however, it has increased significantly during the last century.

You can confirm that the points you've listed are applicable to other countries that have information by clicking on the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, افضل كريم للشعر (more about glorynote.com) and Sweden.