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 have a longer life span than men? What is the reason is this difference growing as time passes? The evidence isn't conclusive and we only have some solutions. We are aware that behavioral, biological and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women have longer lives than men, however, we do not know what the contribution to each of these variables is.

It is known that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. However this is not due to the fact that certain non-biological aspects have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are other issues that are more intricate. For example, زيوت تطويل الشعر 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 above the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl in every country can anticipate to live longer than her older brother.

The chart below shows that while there is a female advantage in all countries, the differences across countries can be significant. In Russia women have a longer life span than males; while in Bhutan the difference is just half a year.

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In the richer countries, the advantage of women in longevity was smaller
We will now examine how the advantage of women in terms of longevity has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancies at the time of birth in the US from 1790 until 2014. Two things stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men and women in America live longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

And second, there is an ever-widening gap: female advantage in terms of life expectancy used to be very small however it increased dramatically during the last century.

You can confirm that these points are also applicable to other countries with data by selecting the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.