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

Revision as of 15:30, 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 is the reason women are more likely to live longer than men? And why the advantage has grown in the past? There isn't much evidence and we're left with only some solutions. While we are aware that there are biological, psychological as well as environmental factors that play an integral role in women living longer than males, we aren't sure the extent to which each factor plays a role.

In spite of how much weight, we know that a large portion of the reason women live so much longer than men do today but not in the past, is to have to do with the fact that certain significant non-biological elements have changed. The factors changing are numerous. 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, especially for افضل كريم للشعر 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. We can see that all countries are above the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl from any country can be expected to live for longer than her brothers.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that, while the advantage for women exists in all countries, country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men, while in Bhutan the gap is just half one year.

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In wealthy countries, the longevity advantage for women was not as great.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The following chart shows male and female life expectancies at birth in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two distinct features stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men and women living in America are living longer than they were 100 years 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 be very modest, but it grew substantially in the past century.

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