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

Revision as of 16:22, 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 is the reason women live much longer than men today and why is this difference growing in the past? We only have partial evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to draw a definitive conclusion. We know there are behavioral, صبغ الشعر بالاسود biological as well as environmental factors which all play a part in the longevity of women over males, we aren't sure the extent to which each factor صبغ الشعر بالاسود plays a role.

Independently of the exact amount, we can say that at least part of the reason why women live so much longer than men in the present but not in the past, has to relate to the fact that some important non-biological aspects have changed. These 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. We can see that all countries are above the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl in all countries can expect to live longer than her brother.

Interestingly, this chart shows that although the female advantage is present everywhere, difference between countries is huge. In Russia women have a longer life span than men. In Bhutan the difference is just half each year.

__S.17__
__S.19__
In countries with high incomes, the advantage of women in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's now look at how the advantage of women in longevity has changed with time. The following chart shows male and female life expectancies when they were born in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two points stand out.

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

Second, there's an increasing gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used to be very modest however, it has increased significantly during the last century.

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