Why Are Women Living 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 why women are more likely to live longer than men? And why is this difference growing over time? We have only a small amount of evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to draw an unambiguous conclusion. We know that behavioral, كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور (click through the up coming web page) biological and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women live longer than men; however, we aren't sure how significant the impact to each of these variables is.

In spite of the precise amount of weight, we are aware that at least part of the reason why women live so much longer than men in the present, but not in the past, has to have to do with the fact that a number of important non-biological aspects have changed. These factors are changing. 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. As you can see, all countries are above the diagonal parity line , this means that in all countries baby girls can expect to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

Interestingly, this chart shows that the advantage of women exists in all countries, global differences are significant. In Russia women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of less than half a calendar year.

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The advantage for women in life expectancy was much lower in developed countries as compared to the present.
Let's look at how the gender advantage in longevity has changed over time. The next chart shows male and female life expectancies when they were born in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend: Men and women in the US live much, much longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is a widening gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be very modest however, it has increased significantly during the last century.

Using the option 'Change country in the chart, you will be able to determine if these two points are also applicable to the other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.