Difference between revisions of "Why Do Women Live Longer Than Men"

Revision as of 03:57, 14 January 2022

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 are more likely to live longer than men? And how does this benefit increase over time? There isn't much evidence and we have only limited solutions. Although we know that there are biological, psychological and environmental factors which all play a part in women living longer than males, we aren't sure what percentage each factor plays in.

We are aware that women are living longer than males, regardless of weight. However this isn't due to the fact that certain biological factors have changed. What are these factors that have changed? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others 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. As we can see, every country is above the diagonal line of parity - which means that in every country that a baby girl can be expected to live for longer than a new boy.1

This chart shows that, even though women enjoy an advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries could be significant. In Russia women have a longer life span than men; in Bhutan the gap is less than half an hour.

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In the richer countries, the female advantage in longevity was not as great.
Let's look at the way that female advantages in life expectancy has changed over time. The next chart compares the male and female lifespans when they were born in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two distinct features stand out.

There is an upward trend. Men and women in America have longer lives than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is widening: علامات الحمل بولد While the female advantage in life expectancy was once extremely small, it has increased substantially over time.

You can confirm that these are applicable to other countries that have data by clicking the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.