Why are women living 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 is the reason women live more than men do today and why does this benefit increase in the past? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn’t strong enough to make an informed conclusion. We know that behavioral, biological and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women are healthier than men; however, we do not know how strong the relative contribution of each factor is.
In spite of the amount, we can say that a large portion of the reason women live longer than men today and not previously, has to do with the fact that several important non-biological aspects have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Other are more complicated. 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 illustrates that, while there is a female advantage across all countries, differences between countries can be significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the difference is just half a year.
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In countries with high incomes, the female advantage in longevity was not as great.
Let’s look at how the advantage of women in longevity has changed over time. The next chart compares the life expectancy of males and females when they were born in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two distinct features stand out.
The first is that there is an upward trend. Women and men living in America are living longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.
Second, ابر التخسيس the gap is growing: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy used to be very small but it has risen significantly over time.
You can check if these points are also applicable to other countries that have data by selecting the “Change country” option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.
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Randolph Buzzard created the group
Why are women living longer than men? 2 years, 7 months ago
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