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 why women are more likely to live longer than men? And how is this difference growing as time passes? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to support an absolute conclusion. Although we know that there are behavioral, biological as well as environmental factors which all play a part in women who live longer than males, it isn't clear how much each one contributes.

We know that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. But it is not due to the fact that certain non-biological factors have changed. These are the factors that are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور like the fact that men smoke more often. Others 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. As we can see, every country is above the diagonal parity line ; it means that in all nations a newborn girl can expect to live for longer than a new boy.1

This chart illustrates that, while there is a female advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries can be substantial. In Russia women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of only half a year.

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The advantage for women in life expectancy was smaller in rich countries that it is today.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The next chart plots the life expectancy of males and females at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two distinct points stand كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور out.

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

The gap is growing: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy used to be very small, it has increased substantially with time.

Using the option 'Change country in the chart, you will be able to check that these two points also apply to other countries that have available information: Sweden, France and the UK.