Difference between revisions of "Why Are Women Living Longer Than Men"

Revision as of 09:14, 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 is the reason women are more likely to live longer than men? Why does this benefit increase in the past? We only have a few clues and the evidence is not sufficient to draw an informed conclusion. Although we know that there are biological, psychological and environmental variables that all play a role in the longevity of women over males, we aren't sure how much each factor contributes.

We know that women are living longer than males, regardless of weight. However, this is not due to the fact that certain biological factors have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Certain 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 men and women. We can see that every country is above the diagonal parity line - this means in all countries the newborn girl is likely to live longer than a new boy.1

The chart below shows that although there is a women's advantage across all countries, differences between countries can be substantial. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan, the difference is less that half a year.

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The female advantage in life expectancy was much lower in rich countries than it is now.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancy at the time of birth in the US during the period 1790-2014. Two distinct features stand out.

There is an upward trend. Both genders in America have longer lives than they used to a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

And second, there is an increasing gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used be extremely small but it increased substantially over the course of the last century.

By selecting 'Change Country from the chart, you are able to verify that these two points are applicable to other countries that have available information: ماذا يحدث بين الزوجين في الحمام بالصور Sweden, France and the UK.