Why Are Women Living Longer Than Men

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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 makes women live more than men do today and why does this benefit increase in the past? We only have a few clues and the evidence is not sufficient to draw a definitive conclusion. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women are healthier than men; but we don't know exactly how significant the impact to each of these variables is.

We have learned that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. However it is not due to the fact that certain biological factors have changed. What are these factors that have changed? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others that are more intricate. 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, ماذا يحدث بين الزوجين في الحمام بالصور (click the following internet page) 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, every country is above the diagonal parity line , it means that in all nations a newborn girl can expect to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart is interesting in that it shows that although the female advantage exists everywhere, the difference between countries is huge. In Russia, women live for 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan, the difference is less than half a calendar year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was smaller in developed countries as compared to the present.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancies when they were born in the US between 1790 to 2014. Two things stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Both genders in America have longer lives than they were 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is widening: While the advantage of women in life expectancy was once quite small but it has risen significantly over time.

You can confirm that the points you've listed are applicable to other countries with data by clicking the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.