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 main reason women live longer than men? And why the advantage has grown as time passes? The evidence is sketchy and we're only able to provide partial answers. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral and environmental factors which all play a part in the longevity of women over males, it isn't clear what percentage each factor plays in.

In spite of how much amount of weight, we are aware that at a minimum, the reason women live longer than men in the present however not as previously, ابر التخسيس has to do with the fact that some key non-biological factors have changed. What are these factors that have changed? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Some are more complex. 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 over the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl from any country can be expected to live for longer than her brother.

Interestingly, this chart shows that the advantage of women is present everywhere, cross-country differences are large. 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 advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was lower in countries with higher incomes as compared to the present.
Let's examine the way that female advantages in life expectancy has changed over time. The next chart shows male and female life expectancy at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two specific points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men and women in America 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 ever-widening gap: female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be quite small however it increased dramatically over the last century.

By selecting 'Change Country' on the chart, you can confirm that the two points are applicable to other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.