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’s the reason why women live longer than men? What is the reason the advantage has grown as time passes? The evidence is limited and we’re only able to provide incomplete solutions. We know that behavioral, biological and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women have longer lives than men, but we don’t know exactly what the contribution to each of these variables is.
We have learned that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. But, this is not due to the fact that certain biological factors have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others 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, العاب زوجية 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, all countries are above the diagonal parity line – which means that in every country baby girls can expect to live longer than a new boy.1
The chart below shows that even though women enjoy an advantage in all countries, the differences across countries can be substantial. In Russia women live 10 years more than males. In Bhutan, the difference is less that half a year.
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In rich countries the women’s advantage in longevity used to be smaller
Let’s now look at the way that female advantages in longevity has changed with time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancies at the time of birth in the US during the period 1790 to 2014. Two aspects stand out.
There is an upward trend. Women and men living in America are living longer than they used to a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.
The gap is growing: Although the female advantage in terms of life expectancy was extremely small however, it has grown significantly with time.
You can verify that these principles are also applicable to other countries that have information by clicking on the “Change country” option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.
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Rafael Keats created the group
Why are women living longer than men? 4 years ago