Why Women Are More Likely To 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's the reason women live longer than men? Why is this difference growing as time passes? We only have a few clues and the evidence is not sufficient to draw an absolute conclusion. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological and environmental factors that all play a role in women's longevity more than men, we don't know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

In spite of how much number of pounds, we know that at least a portion of the reason women live so much longer than men in the present but not in the past, is to do with the fact that some key non-biological factors have changed. These factors are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, زيوت تطويل الشعر 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 زيوت تطويل الشعر men and women. We can see that every country is above the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl in all countries can be expected to live for longer than her younger brother.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that, while the advantage for women exists across all countries, the global differences are significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the gap is only half a year.

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The female advantage in life expectancy was much lower in rich countries than it is today.
Let's look at how the female advantage in longevity has changed with time. The chart below illustrates the men and women's life expectancies at birth in the US between 1790 until 2014. Two areas stand out.

First, there's an upward trend. Both 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.

The second is that there is an increasing gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be very small, but it grew substantially over the last century.

Using the option 'Change country' on the chart, you will be able to confirm that the two points are also applicable to the other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.