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

Revision as of 02:14, 14 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 main reason women are more likely to live longer than men? What is the reason has this advantage gotten larger as time passes? The evidence is limited and we're left with only limited solutions. Although we know that there are biological, behavioral, and environmental factors that all play a role in the longevity of women over males, we aren't sure how much each factor contributes.

In spite of the amount, we can say that a large portion of the reason women live so much longer than men in the present but not previously, has to have to do with the fact that several significant non-biological elements have changed. What are these factors that have changed? 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, all countries are above the diagonal parity line , this means in all countries the newborn girl is likely to live for longer than a new boy.1

This graph shows that although there is a women's advantage across all countries, differences between countries are often significant. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than men; in Bhutan the gap is just half a year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was less in countries with higher incomes than 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 expectancy when they were born in the US during the period 1790 to 2014. Two aspects stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Both men and women in the US have a much longer life span longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The second is that there is a widening gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used to be quite small but it increased substantially over the course of the last century.

You can verify that the points you've listed are applicable to other countries with data by clicking the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and افضل كريم للشعر (glorynote.com) Sweden.