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. Why do women live much longer than men today and how is this difference growing over time? The evidence isn't conclusive and we're left with only limited solutions. Although we know that there are behavioral, biological as well as environmental factors which play a significant role in the longevity of women over males, it isn't clear how much each one contributes.

In spite of the amount of weight, we are aware that at least part of the reason women live longer than men but not in the past, has to be due to the fact that a number of fundamental non-biological factors have changed. These are the factors that are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others that are more intricate. For ابر التخسيس 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 all countries are above the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl from any country can be expected to live for longer than her brothers.

Interestingly, this chart shows that although the female advantage exists everywhere, the global differences are significant. In Russia women have a longer life span than men. In Bhutan the difference is less than half one year.

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The advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was lower in developed countries than it is now.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The following chart shows male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men as well as women in the US are living much, much longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The second is that there is an ever-widening gap: ابر التخسيس female advantage in life expectancy used be very modest however it increased dramatically in the past century.

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