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

Revision as of 15:26, 9 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 more than men do today and why does this benefit increase in the past? We only have partial evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to support an informed conclusion. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological as well as environmental factors that all play a role in the longevity of women over males, it isn't clear what percentage each factor ابر التخسيس plays in.

Independently of the exact weight, we know that at least a portion of the reason why women live longer than men in the present, but not previously, is to do with the fact that certain significant non-biological elements have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Certain 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. We can see that every country is over the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl from any country can anticipate to live longer than her brothers.

This chart shows that, although there is a women's advantage across all countries, differences between countries can be substantial. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than men, while in Bhutan the gap is just half a year.

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In the richer countries, the advantage of women in longevity used to be smaller
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The following chart shows the men and women's life expectancies at the birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Both men and women in the US have a much longer life span 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 getting wider: Although the female advantage in terms of life expectancy was extremely small however, it has grown significantly over time.

You can check if the points you've listed are applicable to other countries that have data by selecting the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, ابر التخسيس and Sweden.