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

Revision as of 15:57, 10 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 have a longer life span than men? Why is this difference growing as time passes? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to support an informed conclusion. We know that behavioral, biological and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women are healthier than men; however, we do not know how much the influence of each factor is.

In spite of how much number of pounds, we know that at least part of the reason why women live so much longer than men however not as in the past, has to have to do with the fact that certain important non-biological aspects have changed. What are the factors that are changing? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Some 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 diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl from any country can expect to live longer than her older brother.

The chart above shows that, while the advantage for women exists across all countries, the global differences are significant. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of less than half a calendar year.

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The advantage for women in life expectancy was much lower in developed countries than it is now.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The next chart shows the male and female lifespans at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two distinct points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men and women in America live longer than they did 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 women: female advantage in life expectancy used be quite small but it increased substantially during the last century.

Using the option 'Change country from the chart, you can confirm that the two points also apply to other countries that have available information: Sweden, France and اوضاع الجماع the UK.