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

Revision as of 15:35, 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. What's the reason women live longer than men? What is the reason does this benefit increase as time passes? The evidence is limited and we only have some solutions. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women live longer than men; however, we do not know how strong the relative contribution of each factor is.

We are aware that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. However it is not because of certain non-biological factors 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 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, all countries are above the diagonal parity line - which means that in every country the newborn girl is likely to live longer than a new boy.1

Interestingly, this chart shows that, while the advantage for women exists across all countries, the country-specific differences are huge. In Russia, women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of less than half a calendar year.

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The advantage for women in life expectancy was smaller in rich countries than it is today.
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancy at the time of birth in the US between 1790 until 2014. Two things stand out.

There is an upward trend: Men as well as women in the US live much, كيفية ممارسة العلاقة الزوجية فى الاسلام (glorynote.com) much longer today than a century 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 be quite small, but it grew substantially during the last century.

You can confirm that the points you've listed are applicable to other countries that have data by selecting the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.