Difference between revisions of "Why Are Women Living Longer Than Men"

Revision as of 22:48, 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 live longer than men and how does this benefit increase over time? The evidence is sketchy and we're only able to provide some answers. Although we know that there are behavioral, biological and environmental factors which all play a part in women living longer than men, we don't know what percentage each factor plays in.

In spite of the precise amount, we can say that at a minimum, كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور the reason women live longer than men in the present and not previously, is to be due to the fact that some key non-biological factors have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Certain are more complicated. 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 we can see, all countries are above the diagonal line of parity - which means that in every country a newborn girl can expect to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart is interesting in that it shows that while the female advantage is present everywhere, cross-country differences are large. In Russia, women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of just half a year.

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The advantage for women in life expectancy was smaller in the richer countries than it is today.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The following chart shows the life expectancy of males and females at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two specific points stand out.

First, there's an upward trend. as well as women in the US live much, much longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is a widening gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be extremely small however, it has increased significantly over the last century.

By selecting 'Change Country from the chart, check that these two points apply to the other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.