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

Revision as of 11:21, 11 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. Why do women live longer than men and why have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? There is only limited evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to reach an unambiguous conclusion. We are aware that behavioral, biological and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women are healthier than men; but we don't know exactly how significant the impact of each factor is.

We are aware that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. But, this is not due to the fact that certain non-biological factors have changed. What are these new factors? 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. It is clear that all countries are over the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl in every country can be expected to live for longer than her younger brother.

The chart below shows that although there is a women's advantage in all countries, the differences across countries can be substantial. In Russia women have a longer life span than men, while in Bhutan the gap is just half a year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was smaller in developed countries than it is today.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The next chart plots male and female life expectancy at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two things stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men and women in America live longer than they used to a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

And second, there is a widening gap: تحاميل مهبلية - click through the next website - The female advantage in life expectancy used to be extremely small but it increased substantially over the last century.

Using the option 'Change country from the chart, you are able to confirm that the two points apply to other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.