Why Do Women Live Longer Than Men

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 main reason women are more likely to live longer than men? Why is this difference growing as time passes? We have only a small amount of evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to draw an unambiguous conclusion. Although we know that there are biological, psychological as well as environmental factors that play an integral role in women living longer than males, we aren't sure what percentage each factor plays in.

We are aware that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. But, this is not because of certain biological or افضل كريم للشعر non-biological factors have changed. These are the factors that are changing. 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 every country is above the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl in every country can be expected to live for longer than her younger brother.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that the advantage of women exists across all countries, the global differences are significant. In Russia women are 10 years older than men; in Bhutan the gap is less than half a year.

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The female advantage in life expectancy was smaller in rich countries as compared to the present.
We will now examine how the female advantage in longevity has changed with time. The chart below illustrates the gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at the time of birth in the US between 1790 to 2014. Two specific points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Both genders living in America are living longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is getting wider: Although the female advantage in life expectancy was extremely small but it has risen significantly over time.

Using the option 'Change country' on the chart, افضل كريم للشعر you can confirm that the two points also apply to the other countries having available data: Sweden, France and the UK.