Difference between revisions of "Why Do Women Have Longer Lives Than Men"

Revision as of 16:28, 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. What makes women live much longer than men today and how does this benefit increase over time? The evidence is limited and we have only some answers. Although we know that there are biological, psychological and افضل شامبو وبلسم environmental variables that all play a role in women's longevity more than men, we don't know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

In spite of the precise number of pounds, we know that at least a portion of the reason women live longer than men, افضل شامبو وبلسم but not previously, is to have to do with the fact that several important non-biological aspects 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, 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. It is clear that all countries are over the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl in all countries can expect to live longer than her brothers.

Interestingly, this chart shows that while the female advantage exists everywhere, the global differences are significant. In Russia women have a longer life span than males; while in Bhutan the difference is just half each year.

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In wealthy countries, the advantage of women in longevity was not as great.
Let's examine how the gender advantage in terms of longevity has changed over time. The chart below shows male and female life expectancy at the birth in the US from 1790-2014. Two things stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Women and men in the United States live longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is getting wider: Although the female advantage in life expectancy used to be tiny however, it has grown significantly with time.

Using the option 'Change country by country' in the chart, check that these two points also apply to other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.