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 longer than men in the present and why has this advantage increased over time? There isn’t much evidence and we have only limited answers. Although we know that there are biological, psychological, and environmental factors that play an integral role in women’s longevity more than men, we don’t know what percentage each factor ماذا يحدث بين الزوجين في الحمام بالصور plays in.
In spite of the precise amount, we can say that at a minimum, the reason why women live longer than men in the present, but not in the past, is to be due to the fact that several key non-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 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. It is clear that every country is over the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl from every country could anticipate to live longer than her younger brother.
This chart shows that, even though women enjoy an advantage in all countries, the differences across countries are often significant. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of less that half a year.
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The advantage for women in life expectancy was smaller in developed countries than it is now.
Let’s examine how the gender advantage in longevity has changed over time. The chart below shows gender-based and female-specific life expectancy when they were born in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two points stand out.
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.
There is a widening gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used to be very small however it increased dramatically over the course of the last century.
When you click on the option “Change country from the chart, you are able to verify that these two points also apply to the other countries having available data: Sweden, France and the UK.
