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’s the reason women are more likely to live longer than men? What is the reason has this advantage gotten larger in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we only have some answers. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women have longer life spans than men, but we don’t know exactly what the contribution to each of these variables is.

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 factors have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and 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. As you can see, every country is above the diagonal parity line ; it means that in all nations the newborn girl is likely to live longer than a new boy.1

It is interesting to note that while the female advantage exists in all countries, country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women live 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of just half a year.

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The female advantage in terms of life expectancy was lower in rich countries that it is today.

Let’s examine how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart shows the life expectancy of males and females when they were born in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two things stand out.

First, there’s an upward trend. Both men as well as women in the US live much, much longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is widening: Glorynote.com/%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%84-%D9%85%D9%87%D8%A8%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%84%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%84/ (click through the next website) While the female advantage in life expectancy was once tiny It has significantly increased with time.

You can confirm that these are applicable to other countries that have data by selecting the “Change country” option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.