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 so longer than men, and why has this advantage increased in the past? The evidence is limited and we only have incomplete solutions. We know there are biological, behavioral and environmental factors that play an integral role in women who live longer than males, it isn’t clear what percentage each factor plays in.
In spite of the precise amount, we can say that at least part of the reason women live so much longer than men but not in the past, is to relate to the fact that certain fundamental 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. 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 اضيق وضعية للجماع women. It is clear that every country is over the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl in all countries can be expected to live for longer than her brother.
This chart is interesting in that it shows that although the female advantage exists everywhere, the difference between countries is huge. In Russia women are 10 years older than men; in Bhutan the gap is just half an hour.
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The advantage for women in terms of life expectancy was lower in countries with higher incomes that it is today.
Let’s take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The next chart shows male and female life expectancy at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two distinct features stand out.
The first is that there is an upward trend: Men as well as women in the US are living much, much longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.
The gap is getting wider: Although the advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was quite small however, اضيق وضعية للجماع it has grown significantly with time.
By selecting ‘Change Country in the chart, you will be able to determine if these two points also apply to the other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.
