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

Revision as of 07:13, 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. Why do women live so much longer than men today, and why is this difference growing in the past? We only have partial evidence and the evidence is not strong enough to make an absolute conclusion. Although we know that there are biological, psychological, and environmental factors which all play a part in the longevity of women over men, we don't know how much each one contributes.

We know that women are living longer than males, regardless of weight. But, this is not because of certain biological or non-biological factors have changed. The factors changing are numerous. 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. As you can see, all countries are above the diagonal line of parity - it means that in all nations a newborn girl can expect to live longer than a newborn boy.1

Interestingly, this chart shows that the advantage of women exists in all countries, difference between countries is huge. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men; in Bhutan the gap is just half each year.

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The advantage for women in life expectancy was smaller in rich countries as compared to the present.
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the men and women's life expectancies when they were born in the US during the period 1790-2014. Two specific points stand out.

There is an upward trend: Men and women in the US are living much, much longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is increasing: While the advantage of women in life expectancy was once extremely small but it has risen significantly over time.

You can confirm that the points you've listed are applicable to other countries that have data by selecting the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and ماذا يحدث بين الزوجين في الحمام بالصور Sweden.