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

Revision as of 14:37, 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 why women are more likely to live longer than men? What is the reason has this advantage gotten larger in the past? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to draw a definitive conclusion. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women have longer life spans than men, however, we aren't sure what the contribution to each of these variables is.

It is known that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. But this is not because of certain non-biological factors have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and صبغ الشعر بالاسود relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others that are more intricate. For example, صبغ الشعر بالاسود 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 every country is over the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl from any country can expect to live longer than her younger brother.

The chart above shows that, while the advantage for women exists in all countries, global differences are significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the difference is just half each year.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was smaller in developed countries that it is today.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The following chart shows the life expectancy of males and females when they were born in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two points stand out.

There is an upward trend. Both men as well as women in the US live a lot, much 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 increase in the gap between men and women: female advantage in life expectancy used be quite small however it increased dramatically during the last century.

When you click on the option "Change country by country' in the chart, determine if these two points are also applicable to the other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.