Difference between revisions of "Why Do Women Have Longer Lives Than Men"

Revision as of 13:44, 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 have a longer life span than men? And how has this advantage gotten larger over time? The evidence isn't conclusive and we're left with only some solutions. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological as well as environmental factors which all play a part in the longevity of women over males, it isn't clear how much each factor contributes.

We have learned that women are living longer than males, علامات الحمل بولد regardless of weight. But this isn't due to the fact that certain biological or non-biological factors have changed. What are the factors that are changing? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, علامات الحمل بولد 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, 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. It is clear that all countries are above the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl from every country could anticipate to live longer than her younger brother.

This graph shows that although there is a women's advantage in all countries, the differences across countries can be substantial. In Russia, women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the gap is only half a year.

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In rich countries the female advantage in longevity was smaller
We will now examine how the female advantage in longevity has changed with time. The next chart shows male and female life expectancies at birth in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two distinct points 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.

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

Using the option 'Change country in the chart, confirm that the two points apply to other countries that have available data: Sweden, France and the UK.