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. What’s the main reason women are more likely to live longer than men? Why does this benefit increase in the past? The evidence isn’t conclusive and we’re only able to provide partial solutions. Although we know that there are biological, Rollshutterusa.com/?option=com_k2&view=itemlist&task=user&id=3432675 psychological and environmental variables which all play a part in the longevity of women over men, we don’t know how much each one contributes.

We have learned that women are living longer than males, regardless of weight. However this is not due to the fact that certain biological factors have changed. What are these new 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 means that a newborn girl in every country can expect to live longer than her older brother.

This chart shows that, although women have an advantage across all countries, differences between countries can be significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men; in Bhutan the difference is just half an hour.

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In the richer 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 next chart compares the male and female lifespans when they were born in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two areas stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Both genders in America live longer than they used to a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is an ever-widening gap: female advantage in life expectancy used be quite small, but it grew substantially over the course of the last century.

You can verify that the points you’ve listed are applicable to other countries with data by selecting the “Change country” option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.