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

Revision as of 00:21, 10 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's the reason why women live longer than men? Why does this benefit increase over time? There isn't much evidence and we have only partial answers. Although we know that there are biological, behavioral and environmental variables that all play a role in the longevity of women over men, we don't know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

We have learned that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. However this is not due to the fact that certain 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 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. We can see that every country is above the diagonal line of parity - this means that in all countries a newborn girl can expect to live longer than a new boy.1

The chart above shows that, ابر التخسيس while the advantage for women exists across all countries, the cross-country differences are large. In Russia, women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of just half a year.

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In wealthy countries, the longevity advantage for women was previously smaller.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The following chart shows male and female life expectancies at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two areas stand out.

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.

Second, the gap is getting wider: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy used to be quite small however, it has grown significantly over time.

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