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

Revision as of 01:06, 13 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 makes women live much longer than men today and how does this benefit increase over time? The evidence isn't conclusive and we only have incomplete answers. We know there are behavioral, biological and environmental variables which all play a part in women living longer than males, we aren't sure what percentage each factor plays in.

In spite of the precise amount of weight, we are aware that a large portion of the reason women live longer than men today and not in the past, has to do with the fact that a number of fundamental non-biological factors have changed. What are these new factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, زيوت تطويل الشعر like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others that are more intricate. 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 over the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl from every country could expect to live longer than her older brother.

It is interesting to note that, while the advantage for women exists in all countries, global differences are significant. In Russia, women live 10 years more than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of less that half a year.

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In rich countries the longevity advantage for women used to be smaller
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the men and women's life expectancies when they were born in the US between 1790 to 2014. Two distinct features stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men and women in the United States live longer than they used to a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is an increasing gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used to be very small, زيوت تطويل الشعر but it grew substantially over the last century.

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