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

Revision as of 17:20, 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 so more than men do today and how is this difference growing in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we have only partial solutions. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological as well as environmental factors that play an integral role in the longevity of women over males, we aren't sure what percentage each factor plays in.

In spite of how much amount of weight, we are aware that a large portion of the reason why women live so much longer than men today but not previously, is to have to do with the fact that a number of significant non-biological elements 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 every country is above the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl from any country can anticipate to live longer than her younger brother.

This chart illustrates that, even though women enjoy an advantage everywhere, cross-country differences can be significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan, the difference is less than half a calendar year.

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The advantage women had in terms of life expectancy was lower in countries with higher incomes than it is now.
Let's look at how the advantage of women in longevity has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the men and women's life expectancies at the time of birth in the US from 1790-2014. Two areas stand out.

There is an upward trend. Men and اوضاع الجماع women in America live longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

And second, اوضاع الجماع there is an increase in the gap between men and women: female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be extremely small but it increased substantially in the past century.

If you select the option "Change country in the chart, you will be able to check that these two points are also applicable to other countries that have available information: Sweden, France and the UK.