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

Revision as of 14:37, 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 why women live longer than men? And why the advantage has grown as time passes? We only have partial evidence and the evidence is not strong enough to make a definitive conclusion. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women have longer life spans than men, however, we do not know how strong the relative contribution to each of these variables is.

It is known that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. However it is not due to the fact that certain 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. There are other issues 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 - which means that in every country that a baby girl can be expected to live for ابر التخسيس longer than a new boy.1

It is interesting to note that while the female advantage exists in all countries, difference between countries is huge. In Russia, women live for 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the gap is less that half a year.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was less in developed countries as compared to the present.
Let's now look at the way that female advantages in longevity has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at birth in the US between 1790 to 2014. Two distinct features stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend: Men and women in the US have a much longer life span longer today than a century 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 terms of life expectancy used be quite small however it increased dramatically over the course of the last century.

You can confirm that the points you've listed are applicable to other countries with information by clicking on the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.