Why Women Are More Likely To 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. Why do women live so much longer than men today and why has this advantage increased over time? The evidence is limited and we're left with only some solutions. We know there are behavioral, biological and environmental factors which all play a part in women who live longer than men, تحاميل مهبلية we don't know what percentage each factor plays in.

We are aware that women live longer than men, regardless of their weight. However this isn't because of certain non-biological aspects have changed. What are these changing factors? 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. It is clear that all countries are above the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl in every country can expect to live longer than her brother.

It is interesting to note that while the female advantage exists across all countries, the difference between countries is huge. In Russia, women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of less than half a calendar year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was smaller in developed countries that it is today.
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart compares male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two things stand out.

There is an upward trend. Women and men in America have longer lives than they used to a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

And second, there is a widening gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used to be very modest, but it grew substantially in the past century.

Using the option 'Change country' on the chart, confirm that the two points also apply to the other countries having available information: Sweden, France and the UK.