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 much longer than men today, and why is this difference growing over time? There isn't much evidence and we only have some answers. Although we know that there are biological, psychological and environmental factors which all play a part in women who live longer than males, we aren't sure what percentage each factor plays in.

We are aware that women are living longer than men, تحاميل مهبلية regardless of their weight. However this is not due to the fact that certain biological factors have changed. What are these factors that have changed? 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, تحاميل مهبلية 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 diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl from every country could anticipate to live longer than her brother.

Interestingly, this chart shows that, while the advantage for women exists everywhere, the global differences are significant. In Russia women have a longer life span than men, while in Bhutan the gap is just half a year.

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The advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was lower in rich countries that it is today.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancies at the time of birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two things stand out.

There is an upward trend. Men and women in America have longer lives than they were 100 years 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 used to be very small It has significantly increased with time.

By selecting 'Change Country in the chart, you can confirm that the two points are applicable to other countries that have available information: Sweden, France and the UK.