Difference between revisions of "Why Do Women Have Longer Lives Than Men"

Revision as of 08:02, 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 is the reason women live longer than men in the present and how have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? We only have a few clues and the evidence isn't sufficient to support an unambiguous conclusion. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological, and environmental factors which all play a part in women who live longer than males, we aren't sure what percentage each factor plays in.

We have learned that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. But this is not due to the fact that 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. Some are more complex. For example, اوضاع الجماع 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 - which means that in every country a newborn girl can expect to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

The chart below shows that while there is a female advantage in all countries, the differences across countries could be significant. In Russia women have a longer life span than men; in Bhutan the gap is just half a year.

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The advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was lower in rich countries than it is today.
Let's now look at how the advantage of women in terms of longevity has changed over time. The chart below shows gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at the birth in the US in the years 1790 to 2014. Two aspects stand out.

There is an upward trend. Both genders in America have longer lives than they used to a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is growing: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy used to be tiny however, it has grown significantly with time.

When you click on the option "Change country by country' in the chart, you will be able to check that these two points also apply to the other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.