Why are women living longer 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 reason why women are more likely to live longer than men? Why does this benefit increase in the past? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn’t strong enough to make an absolute conclusion. Although we know that there are biological, psychological and environmental variables that all play a role in women’s longevity more than males, we aren’t sure what percentage each factor plays in.

It is known that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. However this isn’t because of certain non-biological factors have changed. These are the factors that are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others 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 information from Glorynote – Read A great deal more, 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 we can see, all countries are above the diagonal parity line , it means that in all nations baby girls can expect to live longer than a newborn boy.1

It is interesting to note that, while the advantage for women exists in all countries, country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women have a longer life span than men, while in Bhutan the difference is less than half a year.

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In countries with high incomes, the women’s advantage in longevity was previously smaller.

We will now examine how the gender advantage in longevity has changed with time. The next chart compares male and female life expectancies when they were born in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two specific points stand out.

First, there’s an upward trend: Men as well as women in the US have a much longer life span longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is increasing: While the advantage of women in life expectancy was once tiny It has significantly increased over time.

You can verify that the points you’ve listed are applicable to other countries with data by clicking on the “Change country” option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.

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