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 is the reason women live much longer than men today, and why does this benefit increase in the past? The evidence is limited and we’re only able to provide some answers. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological as well as environmental factors that all play a role in the longevity of women over men, we don’t know what percentage each factor plays in.
We have learned that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. However this isn’t because of certain biological factors have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and تحاميل مهبلية relatively straightforward, تحاميل مهبلية like the fact that men smoke more often. Certain 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, 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 every country is above the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl from every country could be expected to live for longer than her younger brother.
This chart illustrates that, even though women enjoy an advantage across all countries, differences between countries can be significant. In Russia women have a longer life span than males; while in Bhutan the gap is just half each year.
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In countries with high incomes, the longevity advantage for women was previously smaller.
Let’s take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The chart below shows gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at the birth in the US between 1790-2014. Two things stand out.
First, there is an upward trend. Men and women in America have longer lives 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 getting wider: Although the female advantage in terms of life expectancy was tiny It has significantly increased in the past.
Using the option ‘Change country’ on the chart, you can determine if these two points apply to other countries that have available data: Sweden, France and the UK.
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Why women are more likely to live longer than men? 4 years ago