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

Revision as of 22:38, 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 much longer than men today and why does this benefit increase in the past? The evidence is limited and we're left with only some solutions. Although we know that there are biological, behavioral as well as environmental factors that play an integral role in the longevity of women over men, we do not know how much each one contributes.

In spite of how much weight, we know that at least part of the reason women live so much longer than men today but not previously, is to relate to the fact that certain significant non-biological elements have changed. What are these factors that have changed? 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 ماذا يحدث بين الزوجين في الحمام بالصور men and women. It is clear that every country is over the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl in every country can anticipate to live longer than her older brother.

This chart illustrates that, although women have an advantage everywhere, cross-country differences can be significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men; in Bhutan the difference is less than half each year.

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The advantage women had in terms of life expectancy was lower in rich countries than it is today.
We will now examine how the female advantage in longevity has changed over time. The next chart shows the life expectancy of males and females when they were born in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two distinct features stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Women and men living in America are living longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is getting wider: Although the female advantage in life expectancy was very small It has significantly increased with time.

You can confirm that these points are also applicable to other countries that have data by clicking the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.