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

Revision as of 05:17, 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's the reason why women live longer than men? What is the reason is this difference growing over time? We only have a few clues and the evidence isn't strong enough to make a definitive conclusion. We are aware that behavioral, علامات الحمل بولد biological and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women have longer life spans than men, however, we do not know how much the influence to each of these variables is.

In spite of the precise weight, we know that a large portion of the reason why women live so much longer than men and not previously, has to do with the fact that a number of important non-biological aspects have changed. These variables are evolving. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others 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. It is clear that all countries are over the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl from every country could be expected to live for longer than her older brother.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that although the female advantage exists in all countries, global differences are significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the difference is only half a year.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was much lower in countries with higher incomes as compared to the present.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the men and women's life expectancies at birth in the US during the period 1790 until 2014. Two points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend: Men as well as women in the US are living much, much longer than they did 100 years 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 terms of life expectancy used be quite small however it increased dramatically over the last century.

It is possible to verify that these points are also applicable to other countries that have data by clicking on the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.