Why Women 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 are more likely to live longer than men? What is the reason the advantage has grown in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we're only able to provide incomplete answers. While we are aware that there are biological, علامات الحمل بولد behavioral as well as environmental factors that play an integral role in women living longer than men, we do not know how much each factor contributes.

We have learned that women are living longer than males, regardless of weight. However it is not because of certain biological or non-biological factors have changed. These variables are evolving. 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 above the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl from every country could expect to live longer than her older brother.

Interestingly, this chart shows that while the female advantage exists across all countries, the country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men, while in Bhutan the gap is less than half each year.

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The female advantage in life expectancy was less in rich countries than it is today.
Let's examine the way that female advantages in longevity has changed with time. The next chart shows male and female life expectancies at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two things stand out.

There is an upward trend. Both men and women in the US live a lot, much longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is increasing: While the advantage of women in life expectancy used to be extremely small but it has risen significantly over time.

When you click on the option "Change country from the chart, you will be able to check that these two points are also applicable to the other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.