Why Do Women Have Longer Lives 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 reason why women are more likely to live longer than men? And why has this advantage gotten larger in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we're left with only incomplete solutions. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral, and environmental factors which all play a part in women's longevity more than males, we aren't sure what percentage each factor plays in.

Independently of the exact amount of weight, علامات الحمل بولد we are aware that at a minimum, the reason why women live so much longer than men in the present however not as in the past, has to do with the fact that certain important non-biological aspects have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are other issues 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 line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl from every country could anticipate to live longer than her younger brother.

The chart above shows that although the female advantage exists across all countries, the global differences are significant. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of less that half a year.

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The advantage for women in life expectancy was much lower in the richer countries as compared to the present.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart plots male and female life expectancies at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two distinct features stand علامات الحمل بولد out.

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

And second, there is an increasing gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be very modest however, it has increased significantly in the past century.

When you click on the option "Change country by country' in the chart, confirm that the two points also apply to the other countries having available information: Sweden, France and the UK.