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

Revision as of 16:41, 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 how has this advantage increased in the past? The evidence is limited and we only have incomplete answers. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral and environmental variables which play a significant role in women's longevity more than men, we do not know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

We have learned that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. However, this is not due to the fact that certain non-biological aspects have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others that are more intricate. 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 every country is above the diagonal parity line ; which means that in every country that a baby girl can be expected to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart illustrates that, while there is a female advantage everywhere, افضل كريم للشعر cross-country differences are often significant. In Russia, women live 10 years more than males. In Bhutan the difference is only half a year.

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The advantage for women in life expectancy was less in countries with higher incomes than it is now.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at the birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two things stand out.

There is an upward trend: Men as well as women in the US live much, much longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

And second, افضل كريم للشعر there is an ever-widening gap: female advantage in life expectancy used be very small but it increased substantially over the course of the last century.

It is possible to verify that these principles are also applicable to other countries with data by selecting the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.