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

Revision as of 17:12, 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? And how is this difference growing as time passes? We only have a few clues and the evidence isn't sufficient to support an informed conclusion. We know there are biological, behavioral and environmental variables that all play a role in women living longer than males, we aren't sure what percentage each factor plays in.

We are aware that women live longer than men, regardless of weight. However, this is not because of certain non-biological aspects have changed. These variables are evolving. 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 men and women. As we can see, every country is above the diagonal line of parity - which means that in every country that a baby girl can be expected to live longer than a newborn boy.1

It is interesting to note that the advantage of women exists everywhere, the global differences are significant. In Russia women have a longer life span 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 developed countries as compared to the present.
Let's look at how the female advantage in longevity has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancy at birth in the US from 1790-2014. Two specific points stand اوضاع الجماع out.

First, there's an upward trend. Both men as well as 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.

The gap is increasing: While the advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was extremely small It has significantly increased with time.

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