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

Revision as of 15:27, 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. Why do women live so longer than men and how is this difference growing in the past? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to reach an absolute conclusion. We know there are biological, behavioral and environmental factors which all play a part in the longevity of women over males, it isn't clear what percentage each factor plays in.

We are aware that women live longer than men, regardless of their weight. But this is not because of certain non-biological aspects have changed. What are these new factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Some 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 كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور (have a peek here) 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 all countries are above the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl from every country could be expected to live for longer than her brothers.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that, while the advantage for women exists everywhere, the country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women live 10 years longer than males; while in Bhutan the gap is less than half each year.

__S.17__
__S.19__
In the richer countries, the female advantage in longevity was not as great.
Let's examine how the gender advantage in life expectancy has changed over time. The following chart shows male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two areas stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. 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.

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

You can confirm that these principles are also applicable to other countries with data by selecting the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.