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

Revision as of 14:06, 13 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? What is the reason the advantage has grown over time? We have only a small amount of evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to support an absolute conclusion. While we are aware that there are biological, psychological, and صبغ الشعر بالاسود environmental factors which all play a part in women living longer than males, it isn't clear how much each one contributes.

In spite of the amount, we can say that at least part of the reason women live longer than men today, but not previously, has to have to do with the fact that several fundamental non-biological factors have changed. These factors are changing. 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 all countries are over the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl from any country can expect to live longer than her younger brother.

This chart illustrates that, although women have an advantage everywhere, cross-country differences can be significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men, while in Bhutan the difference is less than half each year.

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In wealthy countries, the female advantage in longevity was not as great.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart plots male and female life expectancies when they were born in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Women and men in America live longer than they used to 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

And second, there is an ever-widening gap: female advantage in life expectancy used to be very modest however, it has increased significantly during the last century.

Using the option 'Change country from the chart, you can determine if these two points also apply to the other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.