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’s the reason women are more likely to live longer than men? Why does this benefit increase as time passes? The evidence is sketchy and we only have some answers. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological and environmental factors which play a significant role in women who live longer than males, it isn’t clear how much each one contributes.
We are aware that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. But this isn’t due to the fact that certain non-biological factors have changed. These factors 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, تحاميل مهبلية 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, all countries are above the diagonal parity line – this means in all countries the newborn girl is likely to live longer than a newborn boy.1
This chart illustrates that, although women have an advantage in all countries, the differences across countries can be significant. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan, the difference is less that half a year.
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In wealthy countries, the female advantage in longevity was smaller
Let’s look at how the gender advantage in terms of longevity has changed over time. The chart below shows gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at the birth in the US in the years 1790 until 2014. Two distinct points stand out.
First, there is an upward trend. Men and women in the United States live longer than they were 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.
And second, there is an increasing gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used be quite small however it increased dramatically over the last century.
You can confirm that the points you’ve listed are applicable to other countries with data by clicking on the “Change country” option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and تحاميل مهبلية Sweden.
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