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

Revision as of 15:11, 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. What is the reason women live longer than men? And why has this advantage gotten larger over time? We only have a few clues and the evidence isn't sufficient to reach a definitive conclusion. We know there are biological, behavioral, and environmental factors which play a significant role in the longevity of women over men, we don't know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

We have learned that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. However, this is not due to the fact that certain biological factors have changed. These factors 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, كيفية ممارسة العلاقة الزوجية فى الاسلام especially for كيفية ممارسة العلاقة الزوجية فى الاسلام 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, every country is above the diagonal parity line - this means that in all countries baby girls can expect to live longer than a new boy.1

Interestingly, this chart shows that although the female advantage exists across all countries, the cross-country differences are large. In Russia women are 10 years older than men, while in Bhutan the gap is less than half an hour.

__S.17__
__S.19__
The advantage for women in life expectancy was smaller in countries with higher incomes than it is now.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US between 1790 to 2014. Two things stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men as well as 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 gap is growing: Although the female advantage in terms of life expectancy was very small, it has increased substantially with time.

You can confirm that the points you've listed are applicable to other countries with data by clicking on the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.