Why 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. What is the reason women live more than men do today and why is this difference growing in the past? We only have a few clues and the evidence isn't sufficient to support an unambiguous conclusion. We are aware that behavioral, biological and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women live longer than men; However, we're not sure how much the influence of each of these factors is.

We have learned that women are living longer than males, regardless of weight. However this isn't due to the fact that certain biological or non-biological factors have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others that are more intricate. For example, افضل شامبو وبلسم 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 above the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl in every country can anticipate to live longer than her brother.

Interestingly, this chart shows that although the female advantage exists everywhere, the cross-country differences are large. In Russia, women live for 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan, the difference is just half a year.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was less in the richer countries that it is today.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancy at birth in the US during the period 1790 to 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men and women in the US are living much, much longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is increasing: While the female advantage in life expectancy was once tiny but it has risen significantly over time.

You can verify that these are applicable to other countries with information by clicking on the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.