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 makes women live longer than men in the present and how have these advantages gotten bigger over time? We only have partial evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to support an absolute conclusion. We know there are biological, behavioral and تحاميل مهبلية environmental variables which all play a part in the longevity of women over males, we aren’t sure the extent to which each factor plays a role.
We are aware that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. However it is not because of certain biological or non-biological factors have changed. What are these changing factors? 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. As you can see, every country is above the diagonal parity line – this means in all countries baby girls can expect to live longer than a new boy.1
This chart illustrates that, although women have an advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries can be significant. In Russia, women live for 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the gap is just half a year.
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The advantage women had in life expectancy was less in rich countries than it is now.
Let’s see how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The following chart shows male and female life expectancy at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two points stand out.
First, there is an upward trend. Men and women in America live longer than they used to a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.
Second, the gap is widening: While the female advantage in life expectancy was once extremely small It has significantly increased over time.
You can confirm that these are applicable to other countries with data by clicking the “Change country” option in the chart. This includes the UK, تحاميل مهبلية France, and Sweden.
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Why do women live longer than men? 4 years ago