Why Do Women Have Longer Lives 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 why women live longer than men? What is the reason has this advantage gotten larger in the past? There isn't much evidence and we're left with only incomplete solutions. Although we know that there are biological, behavioral and environmental variables which all play a part in women living longer than males, ابر التخسيس we aren't sure how much each one contributes.

We have learned that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. But this isn't due to the fact that certain non-biological aspects have changed. The factors changing are numerous. 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, 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 - this means in all countries the newborn girl is likely to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

The chart below shows that although women have an advantage everywhere, cross-country differences can be significant. In Russia, women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the gap is less that half a year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was less in the richer countries as compared to the present.
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at the time of birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

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

The gap is getting wider: Although the female advantage in terms of life expectancy was tiny however, it has grown significantly over time.

Using the option 'Change country from the chart, you will be able to check that these two points are also applicable to other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.