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

Revision as of 17:32, 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's the reason women have a longer life span than men? Why is this difference growing over time? There isn't much evidence and we're left with only some answers. While we are aware that there are biological, psychological, and environmental factors which play a significant role in women living longer than males, it isn't clear how much each factor contributes.

Independently of the exact amount, we can say that at least part of the reason women live so much longer than men in the present however not as previously, has to relate to the fact that some fundamental non-biological factors have changed. What are these new factors? Some are well known and 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, every country is above the diagonal parity line - this means that in all countries a newborn girl can expect to live longer than a new boy.1

This chart is interesting in that it shows that the advantage of women exists in all countries, global differences are significant. In Russia women are 10 years older than males; while in Bhutan the gap is just half an hour.

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The female advantage in life expectancy was less in the richer countries that it is today.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The chart below shows male and female life expectancies at the birth in the US during the period 1790-2014. Two areas stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Both genders in America have longer lives than they used to 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is an increase in the gap between men and كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور - please click the up coming website page - women: female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be very small but it increased substantially over the last century.

Using the option 'Change country in the chart, you will be able to determine if these two points are applicable to other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.