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

Revision as of 18:43, 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, and why have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? We only have partial evidence and the evidence is not strong enough to make a definitive conclusion. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women are healthier than men; However, we're not sure how strong the relative contribution to each of these variables is.

We have learned that women live longer than men, regardless of their weight. But it is not due to the fact that certain biological or 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. We can see that every country is over the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl in all countries can be expected to live for longer than her older brother.

This chart shows that, although there is a women's advantage in all countries, the differences across countries can be significant. In Russia women have a longer life span than males; while in Bhutan the difference is less than half a year.

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In wealthy countries, the women's advantage in longevity used to be smaller
Let's now look at how the advantage of women in terms of longevity has changed over time. The following chart shows the men and women's life expectancies at the birth in the US between 1790 to 2014. Two aspects stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men and women 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.

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

You can check if the points you've listed are applicable to other countries with data by selecting the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.