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

Revision as of 01:24, 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 longer than men in the present, and why does this benefit increase in the past? The evidence is limited and we're only able to provide some answers. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women live longer than men; however, we do not know how significant the impact of each factor is.

Independently of the exact amount of weight, we are aware that at least part of the reason why women live so much longer than men today and not previously, has to relate to the fact that some key non-biological factors have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Some 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. As you can see, صبغ الشعر بالاسود every country is above the diagonal parity line , this means that in all countries that a baby girl can be expected to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart is interesting in that it shows that the advantage of women exists in all countries, global differences are significant. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than males; while in Bhutan the gap is just half a year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was less in developed countries than it is now.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart plots male and female life expectancy at birth in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two points stand صبغ الشعر بالاسود out.

First, there is an upward trend. Both genders living in America are living longer than they were a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The second is that there is a widening gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used be quite small but it increased substantially in the past century.

By selecting 'Change Country by country' in the chart, you are able to check that these two points also apply to the other countries having available information: Sweden, France and the UK.