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 is the reason women live longer than men in the present and why has this advantage increased in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we only have some answers. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women have longer life spans than men, however, we do not know how significant the impact of each factor is.
We are aware that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. However it is not because of certain biological factors have changed. These variables are evolving. 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 every country is above the diagonal parity line , it means that in all nations the newborn girl is likely to live for longer than a new boy.1
The chart below shows that although women have an advantage in all countries, تزويد مشاهدات يوتيوب the differences across countries are often significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the gap is just half each year.
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In wealthy countries, the advantage of women in longevity used to be smaller
Let’s take a look at how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The chart below shows male and female life expectancy at the time of birth in the US during the period 1790-2014. Two points stand out.
The first is that there is an upward trend. Both genders in America have longer lives than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.
The gap is getting wider: Although the advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was tiny It has significantly increased over time.
When you click on the option “Change country from the chart, you can confirm that the two points are also applicable to the other countries having available information: Sweden, France and the UK.