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. What is the reason women live longer than men in the present and how is this difference growing over time? The evidence is limited and we have only limited solutions. We know that behavioral, biological and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women have longer lives than men, However, we're not sure how much the influence of each one of these factors is.

It is known that women live longer than men, regardless of weight. However, this is not because of certain biological factors have changed. What are the factors that 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, تحاميل مهبلية 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 every country is over the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl from every country could be expected to live for longer than her brothers.

This graph shows that even though women enjoy an advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries can be significant. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than men; in Bhutan the gap is just half each year.

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The female advantage in life expectancy was smaller in countries with higher incomes that it is today.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The next chart shows male and female life expectancy at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men and women in the United States live longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is an increase in the gap between men and women: female advantage in terms of life expectancy used to be very small however it increased dramatically over the course of the last century.

You can check if these principles are also applicable to other countries that have data by selecting the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and تحاميل مهبلية Sweden.