Why 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 is the reason women live longer than men in the present and why does this benefit increase over time? The evidence is sketchy and we only have incomplete solutions. We know there are behavioral, biological and environmental variables that all play a role in women living longer than men, العاب زوجية we don't know how much each one contributes.

We are aware that women live longer than men, regardless of their weight. But this isn't because of certain non-biological aspects have changed. What are these factors that have changed? 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 from every country could be expected to live for longer than her brothers.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that the advantage of women is present everywhere, difference between countries is huge. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than men, while in Bhutan the gap is less than half each year.

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In rich countries the female advantage in longevity used to be smaller
Let's look at how the gender advantage in terms of longevity has changed over time. The following chart shows male and female life expectancies at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two specific points stand العاب زوجية out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Both genders living in America are living longer than they were a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is increasing: While the advantage of women in life expectancy was quite small but it has risen significantly over time.

You can confirm that these are applicable to other countries that have information by clicking on the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.