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

Revision as of 21:59, 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. Why do women live so more than men do today and why does this benefit increase in the past? We only have a few clues and the evidence is not strong enough to make an informed conclusion. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women are healthier than men; but we don't know exactly how much the influence of each one of these factors is.

In spite of the precise amount of weight, ابر التخسيس we are aware that at a minimum, the reason women live so much longer than men today however not as previously, is to do with the fact that several fundamental non-biological factors have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others 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, ابر التخسيس (go!!) 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 diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl from every country could expect to live longer than her brother.

This graph shows that even though women enjoy an advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries can be substantial. In Russia, women live for 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of just half a year.

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The female advantage in life expectancy was smaller in countries with higher incomes than it is now.
Let's look at the way that female advantages in longevity has changed over time. The next chart plots the life expectancy of males and females when they were born in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two distinct points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men as well as women in the US have a much longer life span longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The second is that there is an increasing gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be very modest but it increased substantially over the course of the last century.

Using the option 'Change country in the chart, you are able to determine if these two points apply to other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.