Why Are Women Living Longer Than Men

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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? Why has this advantage gotten larger as time passes? The evidence is sketchy and we're only able to provide incomplete solutions. Although we know that there are biological, psychological and environmental factors which all play a part in the longevity of women over males, we aren't sure how much each one contributes.

In spite of the number of pounds, كيفية ممارسة العلاقة الزوجية فى الاسلام we know that at least a portion of the reason why women live longer than men in the present however not as previously, is to do with the fact that some key non-biological factors have changed. What are these factors that have changed? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are other issues that are more intricate. 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 means that a newborn girl from every country could expect to live longer than her older brother.

It is interesting to note that, while the advantage for women exists everywhere, the country-specific differences are huge. In Russia, women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the gap is less than half a calendar year.

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In wealthy countries, the advantage of women in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The next chart shows the male and female lifespans at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two areas stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Both genders in America live longer than they were 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is getting wider: Although the advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was tiny however, it has grown significantly over time.

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