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, and why is this difference growing in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we’re only able to provide partial solutions. Although we know that there are biological, psychological, and environmental factors which play a significant role in women’s longevity more than men, we don’t know how much each factor contributes.
Independently of the exact amount, we can say that at least a portion of the reason why women live longer than men in the present and not in the past, has to relate to the fact that a number of significant non-biological elements have changed. What are these new factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others 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, اوضاع الجماع (read this post from rollshutterusa.com) 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 means that a newborn girl from any country can be expected to live for longer than her brothers.
This graph shows that while there is a female advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries could be significant. In Russia women have an average of 10 years more than men. In Bhutan the difference is less than half a year.
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The advantage women had in life expectancy was much lower in developed countries than it is today.
Let’s examine how the female advantage in life expectancy has changed over time. The next chart shows male and female life expectancy at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two points stand out.
There is an upward trend. Women and men in America have longer lives than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.
The gap is widening: While the female advantage in terms of life expectancy was tiny It has significantly increased over time.
You can verify that these principles are also applicable to other countries that have data by clicking the «Change country» option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.