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

Revision as of 08:31, 12 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 women are more likely to live longer than men? Why does this benefit increase in the past? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't strong enough to make an unambiguous conclusion. We know there are biological, psychological as well as environmental factors which play a significant role in the longevity of women over men, we do not know how much each one contributes.

In spite of the amount, we can say that a large portion of the reason why women live longer than men do today, but not previously, has to do with the fact that a number of fundamental non-biological factors have changed. These are the factors that are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others are more complicated. For example, افضل شامبو وبلسم 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. As we can see, all countries are above the diagonal parity line ; it means that in all nations baby girls can expect to live for longer than a new boy.1

This chart shows that, while there is a female advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries can be significant. In Russia women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan the gap is just half a year.

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The female advantage in terms of life expectancy was lower in developed countries as compared to the present.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The following chart shows the life expectancy of males and females at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two specific points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men and women in the US live much, much longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is growing: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy was quite small but it has risen significantly over time.

Using the option 'Change country from the chart, you will be able to confirm that the two points are applicable to the other countries having available information: Sweden, France and the UK.