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. Why do women live longer than men and why does this benefit increase over time? We only have partial evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to support an informed conclusion. We know there are behavioral, biological and environmental factors that play an integral role in the longevity of women over males, we aren't sure how much each one contributes.

We are aware that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. However it is not because of certain non-biological aspects have changed. The factors changing are numerous. 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, ماذا يحدث بين الزوجين في الحمام بالصور (glorynote.com) 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 from any country can be expected to live for longer than her older brother.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that while the female advantage is present everywhere, difference between countries is huge. In Russia, women live for 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan, the difference is only half a year.

__S.17__
__S.19__
In the richer countries, the women's advantage in longevity was smaller
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The next chart compares male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two distinct features stand out.

There is an upward trend. Both men and women in the US are living much, much longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The second is that there is a widening gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used to be very small but it increased substantially over the course of the last century.

Using the option 'Change country in the chart, you are able to determine if these two points apply to the other countries with available data: Sweden, ماذا يحدث بين الزوجين في الحمام بالصور France and the UK.