Why Are Women Living 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. Why do women live longer than men, and why have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we're only able to provide limited answers. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral, and environmental factors that all play a role in the longevity of women over males, it isn't clear how much each one contributes.

In spite of the precise amount of weight, we are aware that at a minimum, the reason women live so much longer than men do today, but not previously, has to have to do with the fact that several key 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 other issues 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 above the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl in every country can anticipate to live longer than her brother.

It is interesting to note that although the female advantage exists everywhere, the difference between countries is huge. In Russia women live 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan the gap is less than half a calendar year.

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In wealthy countries, ماذا يحدث بين الزوجين في الحمام بالصور the longevity advantage for women used to be smaller
Let's now look at how the female advantage in longevity has changed with time. The chart below shows gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at the time of birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two areas stand out.

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

The gap is getting wider: Although the female advantage in terms of life expectancy was very small It has significantly increased over time.

When you click on the option "Change country by country' in the chart, you will be able to determine if these two points are also applicable to the other countries having available information: Sweden, France and the UK.