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

Revision as of 12:07, 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 longer than men in the present and why have these advantages gotten bigger over time? The evidence is limited and we're left with only partial solutions. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all play a role in the fact that women are healthier than men; but we don't know exactly how significant the impact of each one of these factors is.

Independently of the exact weight, we know that at least part of the reason why women live longer than men and اضيق وضعية للجماع (linked web page) not previously, is to do with the fact that some important non-biological aspects have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others 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. We can see that all countries are above the diagonal parity line ; this means in all countries baby girls can expect to live longer than a new boy.1

This chart is interesting in that it shows that, while the advantage for women exists everywhere, the global differences are significant. In Russia women are 10 years older than males; while in Bhutan the difference is less than half a year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was less in the richer countries that it is today.
Let's examine how the female advantage in longevity has changed with time. The chart below shows male and female life expectancies at birth in the US from 1790-2014. Two distinct features stand اضيق وضعية للجماع out.

There is an upward trend. Both genders in the United States live longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

And second, there is an increasing gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used to be very small but it increased substantially over the course of the last century.

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