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 are more likely to live longer than men? And how has this advantage gotten larger over time? We only have a few clues and the evidence is not sufficient to reach an informed conclusion. Although we know that there are biological, behavioral as well as environmental factors which all play a part in the longevity of women over males, we aren’t sure the extent to which each factor plays a role.
Independently of the exact number of pounds, we know that at least a portion of the reason why women live longer than men, but not previously, is to be due to the fact that several fundamental non-biological factors have changed. What are the factors that are changing? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are other issues that are more intricate. 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 every country is above the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl in every country can be expected to live for longer than her brothers.
This chart illustrates that, while there is a female advantage across all countries, differences between countries are often significant. In Russia women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan the gap is just half a year.
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In countries with high incomes, the advantage of women in longevity was previously smaller.
Let’s now look at how the gender advantage in longevity has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the male and افضل شامبو وبلسم, company website, female life expectancies at the time of birth in the US in the years 1790 to 2014. Two points stand out.
There is an upward trend. Both genders in America live longer than they were a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.
Second, the gap is growing: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy used to be tiny It has significantly increased over time.
If you select the option “Change country’ on the chart, you will be able to verify that these two points are applicable to other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.