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 is the reason women live longer than men and how have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't strong enough to make a definitive conclusion. We know there are biological, كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور (Glorynote.com) psychological and environmental factors which all play a part in the longevity of women over males, we aren't sure what percentage each factor plays in.

In spite of the amount, we can say that a large portion of the reason why women live so much longer than men in the present but not previously, is to be due to the fact that some important non-biological aspects have changed. What are these changing factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others are more complicated. 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 above the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl in every country can expect to live longer than her brothers.

It is interesting to note that although the female advantage is present everywhere, global differences are significant. In Russia women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of less that half a year.

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In wealthy countries, the longevity advantage for women was previously smaller.
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart shows male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two distinct points stand out.

First, there's an upward trend. Men and women in the US live much, much longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is an ever-widening gap: female advantage in life expectancy used be extremely small, كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور but it grew substantially in the past century.

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