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

Revision as of 15:36, 8 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 longer than men and how does this benefit increase in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we're left with only incomplete solutions. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral and environmental variables which play a significant role in the longevity of women over males, we aren't sure how much each one contributes.

Independently of the exact number of pounds, we know that at a minimum, the reason women live so much longer than men today and not in the past, has to be due to the fact that certain important non-biological aspects have changed. The factors changing are numerous. 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, 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 we can see, all countries are above the diagonal parity line , it means that in all nations baby girls can expect to live longer than a new boy.1

The chart below shows that while there is a female advantage in all countries, the differences across countries can be substantial. In Russia women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan, كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور the difference is only half a year.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was smaller in rich countries that it is today.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart plots the male and female lifespans when they were born in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Both genders in America live longer than they used to 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

And second, there is an increase in the gap between men and women: female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be extremely small, but it grew substantially during the last century.

You can verify that the points you've listed are applicable to other countries with data by clicking the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.