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 main reason women live longer than men? And why the advantage has grown over time? The evidence is sketchy and we only have limited solutions. Although we know that there are behavioral, biological and environmental variables that all play a role in the longevity of women over men, we do not know the extent to which each factor plays a role.
We have learned that women are living longer than males, regardless of weight. However, this is not due to the fact that certain non-biological factors have changed. What are these new factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Some 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 over the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl in all countries can be expected to live for longer than her brother.
This graph shows that while there is a female advantage across all countries, differences between countries are often significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the gap is less that half a year.
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The advantage for women in life expectancy was less in countries with higher incomes than it is today.
Let’s now look at how the advantage of women in longevity has changed over time. The next chart plots male and female life expectancies at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two distinct features stand out.
First, there is an upward trend. Women and men 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.
And صبغ الشعر بالاسود second, there is a widening gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used be quite small, but it grew substantially over the last century.
You can confirm that these are applicable to other countries with data by clicking the “Change country” option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.
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Why women live longer than men? 4 years ago