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 main reason women live longer than men? And how the advantage has grown over time? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn't strong enough to make an absolute conclusion. We know there are biological, psychological and environmental factors which play a significant role in women living longer than males, we aren't sure the extent to which each factor plays a role.

We are aware that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. However this isn't because of certain non-biological aspects have changed. What are these new factors? Some are well known and ابر التخسيس 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 line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl from every country could anticipate to live longer than her older brother.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that while the female advantage exists everywhere, the country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women live 10 years more than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of just half a year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was smaller in rich countries that it is today.
Let's examine how the gender advantage in longevity has changed with time. The chart below shows gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at the time of birth in the US in the years 1790-2014. Two distinct features stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. as well as women in the US have a much longer life span longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is increasing: While the advantage of women in life expectancy was quite small however, it has grown significantly with time.

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