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 makes women live longer than men in the present and why has this advantage increased in the past? The evidence is limited and we have only incomplete answers. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological as well as 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.
We know that women live longer than men, regardless of their weight. However it is not due to the fact that certain biological factors have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others 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 كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور women. It is clear that all countries are over the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl from any country can be expected to live for longer than her brothers.
Interestingly, this chart shows that the advantage of women exists in all countries, global differences are significant. In Russia women are 10 years older than men; in Bhutan the gap is just half one year.
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The female advantage in life expectancy was much lower in developed countries as compared to the present.
Let’s look at how female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The next chart shows male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two points stand out.
First, there is an upward trend. Men as well as women in the US are living much, much longer today than 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 small, but it grew substantially during the last century.
You can verify that these principles are also applicable to other countries with information by clicking on the «Change country» option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.