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

Revision as of 22:44, 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 longer than men and why have these advantages gotten bigger over time? There isn't much evidence and we're left with only incomplete answers. While we are aware that there are biological, psychological, and صبغ الشعر بالاسود environmental factors which play a significant role in women living longer than males, it isn't clear how much each one contributes.

It is known that women live longer than men, regardless of weight. But it is not because of certain biological or non-biological factors have changed. These are the factors that are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are other issues that are more intricate. 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 you can see, all countries are above the diagonal parity line , it means that in all nations that a baby girl can be expected to live for longer than a new boy.1

This graph shows that although women have an advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries could be significant. In Russia, women live for 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan, the difference is just half a year.

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In wealthy countries, the female advantage in longevity was smaller
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart shows male and female life expectancy at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men and women in America have longer lives than they used to a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The second is that there is a widening gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used be extremely small but it increased substantially over the last century.

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