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

Revision as of 03:35, 12 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 makes women live much longer than men today and how is this difference growing over time? The evidence isn't conclusive and we only have partial answers. We know there are behavioral, biological as well as environmental factors that all play a role in women living longer than men, we do not know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

In spite of the precise number of pounds, we know that at a minimum, the reason women live longer than men in the present but not in the past, is to relate to the fact that several significant non-biological elements have changed. What are these changing factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور 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 كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور 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 parity line , it means that in all nations that a baby girl can be expected to live for longer than a new boy.1

This chart is interesting in that it shows that although the female advantage exists in all countries, cross-country differences are large. In Russia women are 10 years older than men; in Bhutan the gap is less than half each year.

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In the richer countries, the women's advantage in longevity used to be smaller
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancy at birth in the US from 1790-2014. Two specific points stand out.

There is an upward trend. Men and women in the United States live longer than they were 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is widening: While the advantage of women in life expectancy was once extremely small however, it has grown significantly over time.

You can check if these principles are also applicable to other countries with data by clicking the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.