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 women live longer than men? And why does this benefit increase as time passes? The evidence is sketchy and we only have incomplete solutions. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological, and environmental factors which play a significant role in the longevity of women over men, we don’t know the extent to which each factor plays a role.
Independently of the exact number of pounds, we know that at least part of the reason why women live so much longer than men today however not as in the past, is to do with the fact that certain key 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. Others 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. We can see that all countries are above the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl in every country can anticipate to live longer than her brothers.
Interestingly, this chart shows that, while the advantage for women exists across all countries, كيفية ممارسة العلاقة الزوجية فى الاسلام the country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of less than half a calendar year.
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In wealthy countries, the women’s advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let’s now look at how the gender advantage in longevity has changed over time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancy at the birth in the US between 1790-2014. Two points stand out.
The first is that there is an upward trend. Men and women in America live longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.
The gap is widening: While the advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was very small, it has increased substantially over time.
It is possible to verify that these points are also applicable to other countries that have data by clicking on the “Change country” option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.
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Why do women live longer than men? 4 years, 3 months ago