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

Revision as of 12:49, 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 main reason women are more likely to live longer than men? Why is this difference growing 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 behavioral, biological as well as environmental factors which play a significant role in the longevity of women over men, we do not know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

In spite of the number of pounds, we know that a large portion of the reason why women live longer than men in the present but not previously, is to have to do with the fact that a number of important non-biological aspects have changed. What are these factors that have changed? Some are well known and صبغ الشعر بالاسود 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, صبغ الشعر بالاسود 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 all countries are over the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl in all countries can expect to live longer than her brothers.

This chart illustrates that, although women have an advantage across all countries, differences between countries can be significant. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan, the difference is less than half a calendar year.

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In countries with high incomes, the female advantage in longevity used to be smaller
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart compares the life expectancy of males and females at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two areas stand out.

First, there's an upward trend. Men as well as 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.

The gap is getting wider: Although the advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was tiny however, it has grown significantly in the past.

You can confirm that these principles are also applicable to other countries that have data by clicking the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.