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

Revision as of 16:46, 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 main reason women have a longer life span than men? And how is this difference growing as time passes? There isn't much evidence and we only have incomplete solutions. Although we know that there are behavioral, biological and environmental variables which play a significant role in women living longer than men, we do not know how much each one contributes.

It is known that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. But, this is not due to the fact that certain biological or 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. Others 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 ماذا يحدث بين الزوجين في الحمام بالصور men and women. We can see that all countries are above the diagonal parity line - it means that in all nations that a baby girl can be expected to live longer than a newborn boy.1

The chart below shows that although women have an advantage everywhere, ماذا يحدث بين الزوجين في الحمام بالصور cross-country differences can be substantial. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the difference is just half one year.

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In the richer countries, the women's advantage in longevity used to be smaller
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below shows men and women's life expectancies at the time of birth in the US from 1790 until 2014. Two specific points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend: Men as well as women in the US have a much longer life span longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is getting wider: Although the female advantage in life expectancy was tiny It has significantly increased in the past.

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