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

Revision as of 15:15, 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. Why do women live so longer than men and why does this benefit increase in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we're only able to provide incomplete solutions. Although we know that there are biological, psychological and environmental factors that all play a role in women living longer than men, we don't know how much each one contributes.

We are aware that women live longer than men, regardless of weight. However it is not because of certain non-biological factors have changed. These variables are evolving. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Other 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 line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl in all countries can be expected to live for longer than her brother.

It is interesting to note that while the female advantage is present everywhere, cross-country differences are large. In Russia women have a longer life span than males; while in Bhutan the difference is just half one year.

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In wealthy countries, the longevity advantage for افضل كريم للشعر women was smaller
Let's look at how the gender advantage in life expectancy has changed over time. The following chart shows the male and female lifespans at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two areas stand out.

There is an upward trend. Men and women living in America are living longer than they used to a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is getting wider: Although the advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was tiny, it has increased substantially over time.

You can verify that these principles are also applicable to other countries that have data by clicking on the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.