Why Do Women Live 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's the main reason women are more likely to live longer than men? And how does this benefit increase over time? The evidence is sketchy and we're left with only incomplete answers. We know there are behavioral, biological and environmental factors that all play a role in women who live longer than men, we don't know how much each factor contributes.

Independently of the exact amount of weight, we are aware that at least a portion of the reason women live so much longer than men but not previously, has to be due to the fact that several significant non-biological elements have changed. What are these changing factors? 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, 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. It is clear that all countries are over the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl from every country could expect to live longer than her brother.

The chart below shows that even though women enjoy an advantage in all countries, علامات الحمل بولد the differences across countries could be significant. In Russia women have a longer life span than men, while in Bhutan the gap is less than half one year.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was less in rich countries that it is today.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The next chart shows the male and علامات الحمل بولد female lifespans at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two things stand out.

There is an upward trend. Men and women living in America are living longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

And second, there is a widening gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used to be quite small however it increased dramatically in the past century.

If you select the option "Change country in the chart, you can confirm that the two points are applicable to the other countries having available data: Sweden, France and the UK.