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

Revision as of 13:27, 11 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 are more likely to live longer than men? What is the reason is this difference growing as time passes? We only have partial evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to reach an absolute conclusion. Although we know that there are biological, behavioral and ماذا يحدث بين الزوجين في الحمام بالصور environmental factors which all play a part in women living longer than males, we aren't sure how much each one contributes.

In spite of the weight, we know that at least a portion of the reason why women live longer than men but not previously, has to relate to the fact that certain important non-biological aspects have changed. What are the factors that are changing? Some are well known and ماذا يحدث بين الزوجين في الحمام بالصور relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others 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 ; this means that in all countries a newborn girl can expect to live for longer than a new boy.1

This chart shows that, although women have an advantage everywhere, cross-country differences can be substantial. In Russia, women live 10 years more than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of just half a year.

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In countries with high incomes, the female advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's now look at the way that female advantages in longevity has changed with time. The next chart compares the male and female lifespans when they were born in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two points stand out.

There is an upward trend. Both men and women in the US live a lot, much longer today than a century 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 be extremely small however, it has increased significantly in the past century.

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