Why Do Women Have Longer Lives 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 is the reason women live longer than men? And why the advantage has grown in the past? We have only a small amount of evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to reach an informed conclusion. We know there are biological, behavioral as well as environmental factors that play an integral role in the longevity of women over men, we don't know what percentage each factor plays in.

Independently of the exact amount of weight, we are aware that at least a portion of the reason why women live longer than men today, but not in the past, افضل شامبو وبلسم; click through the following internet site, is to relate to the fact that some significant non-biological elements have changed. What are these new factors? 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. We can see that all countries are above the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl from every country could anticipate to live longer than her older brother.

This chart illustrates that, although women have an advantage in all countries, the differences across countries can be substantial. In Russia, women live for 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan the gap is only half a year.

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In countries with high incomes, the advantage of women in longevity was smaller
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The following chart shows male and female life expectancy at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men and women in America have longer lives than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is widening: While the advantage of women in life expectancy was once tiny however, it has grown significantly in the past.

If you select the option "Change country by country' in the chart, verify that these two points also apply to other countries that have available data: Sweden, France and the UK.