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 reason women are more likely to live longer than men? What is the reason is this difference growing over time? We only have a few clues and the evidence isn’t sufficient to draw an informed conclusion. We know there are biological, psychological and environmental factors that play an integral role in women’s longevity more than males, we aren’t sure how much each factor contributes.
It is known that women live longer than men, regardless of their weight. But this is not due to the fact that certain non-biological aspects have changed. What are the factors that 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 diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl in all countries can expect to live longer than her older brother.
It is interesting to note that, while the advantage for اضيق وضعية للجماع women exists in all countries, global differences are significant. In Russia women are 10 years older than men. In Bhutan the difference is just half a year.
__S.17__
__S.19__
The female advantage in terms of life expectancy was lower in the richer countries that it is today.
Let’s now look at how the gender advantage in longevity has changed with time. The next chart shows the male and female lifespans at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two points stand out.
First, there is an upward trend. Men and women living in America are living longer than they were 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.
Second, the gap is increasing: اضيق وضعية للجماع While the advantage of women in life expectancy was tiny, it has increased substantially in the past.
It is possible to verify that these principles 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.