Why Are Women Living Longer Than Men

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 are more likely to live longer than men? What is the reason is this difference growing over time? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to support an absolute conclusion. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women have longer lives than men, However, we're not sure how significant the impact of each one of these factors is.

In spite of the amount of weight, we are aware that at least part of the reason why women live longer than men today but not in the past, افضل كريم للشعر is to relate to the fact that a number of important non-biological aspects 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 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. As you can see, all countries are above the diagonal parity line , it means that in all nations a newborn girl can expect to live longer than a new boy.1

Interestingly, this chart shows that while the female advantage exists everywhere, the difference between countries is huge. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the gap is less than half a calendar year.

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The advantage for women in life expectancy was smaller in rich countries as compared to the present.
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart plots male and female life expectancy at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and افضل كريم للشعر 2014. Two distinct features stand out.

There is an upward trend. Men and women in the US live 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 an increasing gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used be very small however it increased dramatically in the past century.

Using the option 'Change country from the chart, you can confirm that the two points are applicable to other countries that have available data: Sweden, France and the UK.