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? And how the advantage has grown in the past? We have only a small amount of evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to reach an informed conclusion. We know there are biological, psychological as well as environmental factors which all play a part in women's longevity more than men, علامات الحمل بولد we don't know what percentage each factor plays in.

We have learned that women live longer than men, regardless of weight. But, this is not due to the fact that certain biological or non-biological factors have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, 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. We can see that every country is above the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl in every country can anticipate to live longer than her older brother.

The chart below shows that although there is a women's advantage across all countries, differences between countries can be substantial. In Russia, women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan the difference is just half a year.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was smaller in developed countries that it is today.
Let's look at the way that female advantages in terms of longevity has changed over time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US during the period 1790 to 2014. Two points stand out.

First, there's an upward trend: Men and women in the US live a lot, much longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is growing: Although the female advantage in life expectancy was very small however, it has grown significantly with time.

When you click on the option "Change country' on the chart, you will be able to verify that these two points apply to other countries that have available information: Sweden, France and the UK.