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 has this advantage increased over time? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn’t strong enough to make an informed conclusion. We are aware that behavioral, biological and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women have longer life spans than men, تحاميل مهبلية However, we’re not sure what the contribution of each one of these factors is.
In spite of the precise number of pounds, we know that a large portion of the reason why women live longer than men today however not as in the past, is to be due to the fact that certain key non-biological factors have changed. What are these new factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others 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. As you can see, every country is above the diagonal parity line , which means that in every country a newborn girl can expect to live for longer than a newborn boy.1
This graph shows that although women have an advantage in all countries, the differences across countries are often significant. In Russia women live 10 years more than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of just half a year.
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In countries with high incomes, the women’s advantage in longevity was not as great.
Let’s look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart plots male and female life expectancies at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two distinct points stand out.
First, there is an upward trend: Men and women in the US live much, much longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.
Second, the gap is widening: While the advantage of women in life expectancy was very small however, it has grown significantly over time.
If you select the option “Change country in the chart, you will be able to confirm that the two points are applicable to the other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.
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Why are women living longer than men? 4 years ago