Difference between revisions of "Why Are Women Living Longer Than Men"

Revision as of 13:16, 11 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 so longer than men, and why does this benefit increase over time? The evidence is limited and we're left with only partial answers. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral and environmental variables that all play a role in women's longevity more than men, we do not know how much each one contributes.

We know that women are living longer than males, regardless of weight. However it is not due to the fact that certain non-biological factors have changed. What are the factors that are changing? Some are well known and افضل شامبو وبلسم 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, افضل شامبو وبلسم 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, every country is above the diagonal parity line - it means that in all nations baby girls can expect to live longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart shows that, although there is a women's advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries are often significant. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than men. In Bhutan the gap is just half each year.

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The advantage for women in life expectancy was smaller in developed countries that it is today.
Let's now look at how the female advantage in longevity has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at birth in the US in the years 1790 to 2014. Two points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Women and men in the United States live longer than they used to 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is an ever-widening gap: female advantage in life expectancy used to be very small but it increased substantially in the past century.

You can check if 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, and Sweden.