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

Revision as of 16:35, 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 is the reason women live longer than men in the present and why is this difference growing over time? There is only limited evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to support an absolute conclusion. We know there are behavioral, biological as well as environmental factors which play a significant role in women's longevity more than men, we don't know how much each factor contributes.

It is known that women are living longer than males, regardless of weight. However, this is not due to the fact that certain biological or non-biological factors have changed. What are the factors that are changing? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Other 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 كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور 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 we can see, every country is above the diagonal parity line , this means in all countries the newborn girl is likely to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart is interesting in that it shows that although the female advantage exists across all countries, the global differences are significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the gap is less than half a calendar year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was less in the richer countries than it is today.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart plots the male and female lifespans at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two things stand out.

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

Second, the gap is growing: Although the advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was very small It has significantly increased over time.

Using the option 'Change country' on the chart, confirm that the two points are also applicable to the other countries having available data: Sweden, France and the UK.