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

Revision as of 15:17, 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's the reason women are more likely to live longer than men? Why has this advantage gotten larger over time? The evidence is limited and we're only able to provide limited solutions. Although we know that there are biological, behavioral, and environmental factors which play a significant role in women living longer than males, we aren't sure the extent to which each factor plays a role.

It is known that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. But this isn't because of certain non-biological aspects 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 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 from any country can anticipate to live longer than her older brother.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that, while the advantage for women is present everywhere, global differences are significant. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than men; in Bhutan the gap is less than half a year.

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The advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was lower in developed countries that it is today.
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The following chart shows the men and women's life expectancies at the birth in the US in the years 1790 to 2014. Two distinct features stand تحاميل مهبلية out.

First, there is an upward trend. Both men as well as women in the US live much, much longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is growing: Although the female advantage in life expectancy used to be extremely small, it has increased substantially over time.

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