Why Do Women Live 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. Why do women live so much longer than men today and why is this difference growing over time? The evidence is sketchy and we only have some answers. We know there are biological, psychological as well as environmental factors which play a significant role in the longevity of women over males, افضل شامبو وبلسم it isn't clear what percentage each factor plays in.

It is known that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. But this isn't due to the fact that certain non-biological aspects have changed. What are these new factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Other are more complicated. For افضل شامبو وبلسم 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 we can see, every country is above the diagonal parity line ; this means that in all countries a newborn girl can expect to live longer than a new boy.1

This chart shows that, although women have an advantage in all countries, the differences across countries could be significant. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of just half a year.

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In rich countries the longevity advantage for women was not as great.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart compares male and female life expectancy at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two specific points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. as well as women in the US live much, 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 female advantage in life expectancy was extremely small It has significantly increased over time.

By selecting 'Change Country by country' in the chart, determine if these two points are applicable to other countries that have available data: Sweden, France and the UK.