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. Why do women live longer than men in the present and how have these advantages gotten bigger over time? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to support an absolute conclusion. Although we know that there are biological, psychological and environmental factors which all play a part in women living longer than men, we do not know the extent to which each factor كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور plays a role.

It is known that women live longer than men, regardless of their weight. But it is not due to the fact that certain biological factors have changed. These variables are evolving. 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. It is clear that every country is above the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl from any country can expect to live longer than her younger brother.

Interestingly, this chart shows that the advantage of women exists in all countries, cross-country differences are large. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the gap is only half a year.

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In wealthy countries, the female advantage in longevity was not as great.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancy at birth in the US between 1790 to 2014. Two aspects stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men and women in the US live much, much longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The second is that there is an increasing gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used be very small, كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور but it grew substantially over the course of the last century.

When you click on the option "Change country from the chart, confirm that the two points are also applicable to other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.