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

Revision as of 16:18, 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 more than men do today, and why have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? The evidence isn't conclusive and we're left with only limited answers. We know there are biological, psychological, and environmental factors which play a significant role in the longevity of women over men, we do not know how much each one contributes.

In spite of the number of pounds, we know that at least a portion of the reason women live longer than men do today and not previously, is to be due to the fact that a number of important non-biological aspects have changed. What are the factors that are changing? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Certain 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. As you can see, all countries are above the diagonal parity line ; this means in all countries that a baby girl can be expected to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

This graph shows that although women have an advantage in all countries, the differences across 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 rich countries the longevity advantage for women was not as great.
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The next chart shows male and female life expectancy at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two specific points stand كيفية ممارسة العلاقة الزوجية فى الاسلام out.

There is an upward trend. Women and men in America have longer lives than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is increasing: While the female advantage in terms of life expectancy was very small It has significantly increased over time.

You can confirm that the points you've listed are applicable to other countries with data by selecting the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, كيفية ممارسة العلاقة الزوجية فى الاسلام France, and Sweden.