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

Revision as of 02:02, 14 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 much longer than men today and why have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't strong enough to make a definitive conclusion. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women have longer life spans than men, However, we're not sure how much the influence of each of these factors is.

We have learned that women live longer than men, regardless of weight. However it is not because of certain biological or 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. Others 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 above the diagonal line of parity - this means in all countries the newborn girl is likely to live longer than a newborn boy.1

This graph shows that although women have an advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries could be significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men, while in Bhutan the difference is just half each year.

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In countries with high incomes, the female advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's now look at how the gender advantage in longevity has changed with time. The next chart compares the male and female lifespans at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two aspects stand out.

There is an upward trend. Men and ماذا يحدث بين الزوجين في الحمام بالصور 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, ماذا يحدث بين الزوجين في الحمام بالصور there is an ever-widening gap: female advantage in terms of life expectancy used to be very modest, but it grew substantially over the course of the last century.

You can check if these are applicable to other countries that have data by selecting the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.