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. What is the reason women live much longer than men today, and why has this advantage increased in the past? There isn't much evidence and we only have incomplete solutions. Although we know that there are biological, psychological and environmental factors which all play a part in women who live longer than men, we don't know what percentage each factor plays in.

It is known that women live longer than men, regardless of weight. But this is not due to the fact that certain non-biological aspects have changed. What are these changing factors? Some are well known and زيوت تطويل الشعر (click through the next webpage) relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Some are more complex. 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. As you can see, every country is above the diagonal parity line - it means that in all nations that a baby girl can be expected to live longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart shows that, even though women enjoy an advantage everywhere, cross-country differences could be significant. In Russia women live 10 years more than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of less that half a year.

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In wealthy countries, the female advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's now look at how the female advantage in terms of longevity has changed over time. The next chart compares the male and female lifespans at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two areas stand out.

First, there's an upward trend: Men as well as women in the US have a much longer life span longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

And second, there is an ever-widening gap: female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be very modest however it increased dramatically over the course of the last century.

You can verify that these principles are also applicable to other countries that have data by clicking on the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.