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

Revision as of 12:30, 12 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 more than men do today, and why does this benefit increase over time? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to support an unambiguous conclusion. Although we know that there are biological, psychological, and environmental factors that play an integral role in the longevity of women over males, افضل شامبو وبلسم it isn't clear how much each one contributes.

In spite of the number of pounds, we know that at least part of the reason women live so much longer than men however not as in the past, has to relate to the fact that some fundamental 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. Others are more complex. 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, افضل شامبو وبلسم 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, all countries are above the diagonal parity line - which means that in every country a newborn girl can expect to live longer than a new boy.1

Interestingly, this chart shows that, while the advantage for women exists across all countries, the country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the gap is less that half a year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was much lower in rich countries that it is today.
Let's now look at how the advantage of women in life expectancy has changed over time. The following chart shows the male and female lifespans when they were born in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two specific points stand out.

There is an upward trend. Women and men in America have longer lives than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is widening: While the advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was extremely small but it has risen significantly with time.

When you click on the option "Change country in the chart, you can confirm that the two points apply to the other countries having available information: Sweden, France and the UK.