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

Revision as of 16:50, 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 longer than men and why does this benefit increase in the past? We have only a small amount of evidence and the evidence is not strong enough to make a definitive conclusion. We know that behavioral, biological and علامات الحمل بولد environmental factors contribute to the fact that women have longer life spans than men, however, we aren't sure what the contribution of each of these factors is.

In spite of the precise amount, we can say that a large portion of the reason women live longer than men and not in the past, has to relate to the fact that certain key non-biological factors have changed. What are these factors that have changed? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others 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, علامات الحمل بولد 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, every country is above the diagonal parity line ; this means in all countries the newborn girl is likely to live longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart shows that, although women have an advantage in all countries, the differences across countries could be significant. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of just half a year.

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The advantage for women in life expectancy was much lower in countries with higher incomes than it is today.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart plots the life expectancy of males and females at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two distinct features stand out.

First, there's an upward trend. Men and women in the US have a much longer life span longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is a widening gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used be very modest, but it grew substantially over the last century.

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