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 has this advantage increased in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we're left with only incomplete solutions. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral and environmental factors which play a significant role in women's longevity more than males, we aren't sure how much each factor contributes.

In spite of the amount, we can say that at a minimum, صبغ الشعر بالاسود the reason women live so much longer than men do today and not previously, is to do with the fact that certain important non-biological aspects have changed. What 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 every country is over the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl in every country can expect to live longer than her younger brother.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that, while the advantage for women exists everywhere, the global differences are significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men; in Bhutan the difference is just half one year.

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In countries with high incomes, صبغ الشعر بالاسود the longevity advantage for women used to be smaller
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below shows men and women's life expectancies at the birth in the US in the years 1790-2014. Two points stand out.

There is an upward trend. Both genders in America live longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The second is that there is an increasing gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be quite small but it increased substantially over the course of the last century.

By selecting 'Change Country in the chart, you can check that these two points are also applicable to the other countries having available data: Sweden, France and the UK.