Why Are Women Living 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 is the reason women live longer than men in the present and how have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? The evidence is limited and we have only incomplete answers. Although we know that there are biological, psychological, and environmental factors that all play a role in women's longevity more than males, we aren't sure how much each one contributes.

Independently of the exact amount of weight, we are aware that a large portion of the reason why women live so much longer than men do today but not previously, علامات الحمل بولد is to have to do with the fact that a number of significant non-biological elements have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Certain are more complicated. 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. We can see that all countries are above the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl from every country could expect to live longer than her younger brother.

It is interesting to note that although the female advantage exists everywhere, the global differences are significant. In Russia, women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of only half a year.

__S.17__
__S.19__
The female advantage in life expectancy was smaller in developed countries than it is today.
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The following chart shows the life expectancy of males and females when they were born in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

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

Second, the gap is increasing: While the advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was tiny, it has increased substantially with time.

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