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 live longer than men? What is the reason is this difference growing as time passes? We only have partial evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to draw an informed conclusion. Although we know that there are biological, psychological as well as environmental factors that play an integral role in women's longevity more than males, it isn't clear how much each factor contributes.

In spite of how much amount of weight, we are aware that at a minimum, the reason why women live so much longer than men do today but not previously, has to relate to the fact that some important non-biological aspects have changed. What are these changing factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Some 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 women. As you can see, all countries are above the diagonal parity line , افضل كريم للشعر (check out this one from Glorynote) which means that in every country that a baby girl can be expected to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

This chart is interesting in that it shows that, while the advantage for women is present everywhere, country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women have a longer life span than men; in Bhutan the difference is less than half an hour.

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In wealthy countries, the women's advantage in longevity was smaller
Let's look at the way that female advantages in longevity has changed over time. The following chart shows the male and female lifespans at birth in the US between 1790 and افضل كريم للشعر 2014. Two specific points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend: Men and women in the US live a lot, much longer today than a century 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 life expectancy was tiny however, it has grown significantly over time.

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