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

Revision as of 08:14, 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's the reason women live longer than men? What is the reason the advantage has grown in the past? We only have a few clues and the evidence isn't strong enough to make a definitive conclusion. Although we know that there are biological, psychological, and environmental factors that all play a role in women living longer than males, we aren't sure the extent to which each factor plays a role.

We have learned that women live longer than men, regardless of weight. However this isn't because of certain biological or افضل كريم للشعر non-biological factors have changed. These variables are evolving. 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, 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 all countries are over the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl from any country can expect to live longer than her brothers.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that although the female advantage exists across all countries, the cross-country differences are large. In Russia, women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the difference is just half a year.

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The advantage for women in life expectancy was less in rich countries than it is today.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart shows the male and female lifespans at birth in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Women and men in America live longer than they used to a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The second is that there is an increase in the gap between men and women: female advantage in life expectancy used be very modest but it increased substantially during the last century.

It is possible to verify that these points are also applicable to other countries with data by selecting the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.