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

Revision as of 14:21, 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, and why has this advantage increased in the past? We only have partial evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to support a definitive conclusion. We know there are biological, behavioral and environmental factors which all play a part in the longevity of women over males, we aren't sure the extent to which each factor plays a role.

In spite of the precise number of pounds, we know that at least part of the reason why women live so much longer than men do today and not previously, is to be due to the fact that some key 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, there is evidence that in rich countries the female advantage increased in part because infectious diseases used to affect women disproportionately a century ago, افضل شامبو وبلسم 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 line of parity. This means that a newborn girl in all countries can anticipate to live longer than her brothers.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that although the female advantage exists everywhere, the cross-country differences are large. In Russia, افضل شامبو وبلسم women live 10 years more than males. In Bhutan the gap is just half a year.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was smaller in the richer countries as compared to the present.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart plots the male and female lifespans at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two distinct features stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men as well as women in the US have a much longer life span longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The second is that there is an increasing gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used be extremely small, but it grew substantially over the course of the last century.

If you select the option "Change country in the chart, you are able to determine if these two points also apply to the other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.