Why Do 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 makes women live much longer than men today and why have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? We only have a few clues and the evidence isn't sufficient to reach an informed conclusion. While we are aware that there are biological, psychological as well as environmental factors which all play a part in women who live longer than males, it isn't clear how much each factor contributes.

Independently of the exact amount, we can say that at least a portion of the reason why women live longer than men, but not in the past, has to do with the fact that certain important non-biological aspects have changed. These are the factors that are changing. 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, علامات الحمل بولد 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. We can see that all countries are over the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl from any country can expect to live longer than her younger brother.

This chart illustrates that, although there is a women's advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries can be substantial. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the difference is less that half a year.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was smaller in countries with higher incomes than it is now.
We will now examine how the advantage of women in longevity has changed with time. The chart below illustrates the gender-based and female-specific life expectancy when they were born in the US in the years 1790-2014. Two specific points stand out.

There is an upward trend. Women and علامات الحمل بولد men in the United States live longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is widening: While the female advantage in life expectancy was once quite small It has significantly increased over time.

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