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

Revision as of 15:36, 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. Why do women live longer than men, and why have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? We have only a small amount of evidence and ابر التخسيس the evidence is not sufficient to reach an absolute conclusion. We know that biological, behavioral and ابر التخسيس (Glorynote.com blog article) environmental factors all play a role in the fact that women are healthier than men; however, we aren't sure how much the influence of each one of these factors is.

Independently of the exact amount, we can say that at least part of the reason women live so much longer than men in the present but not previously, is to do with the fact that several important non-biological aspects have changed. What are these changing factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Other 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, 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 over the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl in every country can be expected to live for longer than her older brother.

The chart above shows that while the female advantage exists across all countries, the global differences are significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than males; while in Bhutan the gap is just half a year.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was smaller in developed countries that it is today.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancy at the birth in the US in the years 1790 until 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend: Men and women in the US are living much, much longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is increasing: While the female advantage in life expectancy was once extremely small, it has increased substantially in the past.

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