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

Revision as of 18:55, 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 have a longer life span than men? And how is this difference growing in the past? There is only limited evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to draw an unambiguous conclusion. Although we know that there are behavioral, biological as well as environmental factors which all play a part in the longevity of women over men, we do not know how much each factor contributes.

In spite of the amount of weight, we are aware that a large portion of the reason why women live longer than men and not previously, is to do with the fact that some key non-biological factors have changed. What are these new factors? 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. We can see that all countries are above the diagonal parity line , this means in all countries baby girls can expect to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

Interestingly, this chart shows that, while the advantage for women is present everywhere, country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan the gap is less that half a year.

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In the richer countries, the longevity advantage for women was previously smaller.
Let's look at how the gender advantage in life expectancy has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancies at birth in the US in the years 1790 to 2014. Two distinct features stand out.

First, there's an upward trend. Both men and women in the US are living much, العاب زوجية much longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is getting wider: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy was once quite small but it has risen significantly over time.

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