Why Women Are More Likely To 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. What's the reason women live longer than men? Why does this benefit increase as time passes? We have only a small amount of evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to draw an informed conclusion. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological and اضيق وضعية للجماع environmental variables which all play a part 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 least part of the reason why women live so much longer than men in the present however not as previously, is to relate to the fact that several fundamental non-biological factors have changed. What are these new factors? Some are well known and 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. It is clear that all countries are over the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl from every country could be expected to live for longer than her brothers.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that the advantage of women exists in all countries, global differences are significant. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan, the difference is just half a year.

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The female advantage in life expectancy was much lower in countries with higher incomes than it is today.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below shows male and female life expectancy at the time of birth in the US in the years 1790 to 2014. Two points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Both men and women in the US have a much longer life span longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is growing: Although the advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was quite small, it has increased substantially over time.

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