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

Revision as of 23:51, 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 women are more likely to live longer than men? Why the advantage has grown in the past? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to support an absolute conclusion. Although we know that there are biological, behavioral and environmental variables which all play a part in women living longer than men, we don't know how much each one contributes.

We have learned that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. But this isn't due to the fact that certain 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. Others are more complicated. 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. It is clear that all countries are above the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl in all countries can anticipate to live longer than her brothers.

It is interesting to note that although the female advantage exists everywhere, ابر التخسيس (his response) the country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women live 10 years longer than males; while in Bhutan the gap is less than half a year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was less in the richer countries than it is today.
Let's now look at how the gender advantage in life expectancy has changed over time. The following chart shows the life expectancy of males and females when they were born in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

First, there's an upward trend: Men and women in the US are living much, much 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 increase in the gap between men and women: female advantage in life expectancy used to be very small but it increased substantially over the last century.

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