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. Why do women live so longer than men in the present and صبغ الشعر بالاسود why is this difference growing over time? The evidence isn't conclusive and we only have limited 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, it isn't clear how much each one contributes.

In spite of the precise amount, we can say that at least part of the reason women live so much longer than men today but not previously, is to relate to the fact that some fundamental 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. Other are more complicated. 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 above the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl from every country could expect to live longer than her brothers.

This chart illustrates that, even though women enjoy an advantage in all countries, the differences across countries can be substantial. In Russia, women live for 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of less than half a calendar year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was much lower in developed countries as compared to the present.
Let's look at the way that female advantages in longevity has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the men and women's life expectancies at birth in the US during the period 1790 to 2014. Two things stand out.

First, there's an upward trend. and women in the US live a lot, much longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is widening: While the advantage of women in life expectancy was extremely small, it has increased substantially over time.

Using the option 'Change country from the chart, you can check that these two points also apply to the other countries having available data: Sweden, France and the UK.