Why Do Women Have Longer Lives 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's the main reason women are more likely to live longer than men? What is the reason does this benefit increase in the past? We have only a small amount of evidence and the evidence is not strong enough to make an absolute conclusion. We know that behavioral, biological and environmental factors all play a role in the fact that women live longer than men; however, we do not know how much the influence of each one of these factors is.

In spite of the amount, افضل شامبو وبلسم we can say that at least part of the reason why women live so much longer than men do today and not previously, is to be due to the fact that a number of important non-biological aspects have changed. What are these new factors? 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. We can see that all countries are above the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl from every country could anticipate to live longer than her brother.

This graph shows that although there is a women's advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries are often significant. In Russia women live 10 years more than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of less than half a calendar year.

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In rich countries the women's advantage in longevity used to be smaller
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below shows male and female life expectancy at birth in the US during the period 1790 until 2014. Two points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. and women in the US have a much longer life span 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 growing: Although the female advantage in life expectancy was tiny, افضل شامبو وبلسم it has increased substantially over time.

If you select the option "Change country in the chart, confirm that the two points also apply to the other countries having available information: Sweden, France and the UK.