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

Revision as of 23:43, 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 is the reason women live longer than men and why has this advantage increased in the past? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to reach an unambiguous conclusion. Although we know that there are biological, behavioral and environmental variables which play a significant role in women living longer than males, it isn't clear how much each factor contributes.

In spite of the precise number of pounds, we know that at least a portion of the reason women live longer than men but not previously, has to be due to the fact that a number of fundamental non-biological factors have changed. What are the factors that are changing? 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. It is clear that all countries are over the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl in all countries can anticipate to live longer than her younger brother.

The chart below shows that although there is a women's advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries could be significant. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than men; in Bhutan the gap is less than half each year.

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The female advantage in life expectancy was smaller in developed countries than it is now.
Let's examine how the gender advantage in longevity has changed over time. The next chart compares male and female life expectancies at birth in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two aspects stand افضل شامبو وبلسم out.

First, there is an upward trend. as well as women in the US live a lot, much longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is widening: While the advantage of women in life expectancy was extremely small but it has risen significantly over time.

You can verify that these are applicable to other countries with information by clicking on the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.