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

Revision as of 02:19, 10 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 are more likely to live longer than men? And why has this advantage gotten larger in the past? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to draw an absolute conclusion. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral as well as environmental factors that all play a role in women's longevity more than males, we aren't sure the extent to which each factor plays a role.

In spite of the precise amount, we can say that at least part of the reason women live longer than men in the present, but not previously, is to have to do with the fact that several significant non-biological elements 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. It is clear that every country is above the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl from every country could anticipate to live longer than her younger brother.

Interestingly, this chart shows that although the female advantage exists across all countries, the cross-country differences are large. In Russia, women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the difference is just half a year.

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In the richer countries, the longevity advantage for العاب زوجية women was not as great.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The following chart shows male and female life expectancies at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two areas stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. and women in the US have a much longer life span longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The second is that there is a widening gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used to be extremely small but it increased substantially over the last century.

You can check if the points you've listed are applicable to other countries with information by clicking on the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.