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

Revision as of 00:16, 13 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 are more likely to live longer than men? What is the reason does this benefit increase over time? We have only a small amount of evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to support an absolute conclusion. We know there are behavioral, biological and environmental factors that all play a role in women living longer than men, we do not know how much each one contributes.

In spite of how much number of pounds, اوضاع الجماع we know that at least a portion of the reason why women live so much longer than men but not in the past, is to relate to the fact that certain significant non-biological elements have changed. What are these new factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others are more complicated. For اوضاع الجماع 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 diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl from every country could expect to live longer than her brother.

This chart illustrates that, even though women enjoy an advantage across all countries, differences between countries could be significant. In Russia women are 10 years older than men; in Bhutan the gap is just half a year.

__S.17__
__S.19__
The female advantage in life expectancy was less in rich countries that it is today.
Let's examine how the gender advantage in longevity has changed over time. The next chart plots male and female life expectancy at birth in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Both genders living in America are living longer than they were 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is widening: While the female advantage in life expectancy was very small but it has risen significantly over time.

You can verify that these principles are also applicable to other countries with data by clicking on the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.