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

Revision as of 17:35, 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 reason why women are more likely to live longer than men? And why does this benefit increase in the past? We only have a few clues and the evidence is not strong enough to make a definitive conclusion. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women have longer lives than men, however, we aren't sure how strong the relative contribution to each of these variables is.

In spite of the precise amount of weight, we are aware that at a minimum, the reason why women live longer than men and not in the past, has to have to do with the fact that several key non-biological factors have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Some 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, so advances in medicine that reduced the long-term health burden from infectious diseases, كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور especially for survivors, كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور 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 line of parity - which means that in every country baby girls can expect to live for longer than a new boy.1

Interestingly, this chart shows that while the female advantage exists in all countries, cross-country differences are large. In Russia women live 10 years more than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of just half a year.

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In the richer countries, the female advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's look at the way that female advantages in longevity has changed with time. The following chart shows male and female life expectancy at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two areas stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Both men and women in the US have a much longer life span longer today than a century 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 however, it has grown significantly in the past.

Using the option 'Change country' on the chart, check that these two points are applicable to the other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.