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 is this difference growing over time? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn’t sufficient to draw an absolute conclusion. While we are aware that there are biological, psychological and environmental factors which play a significant role in the longevity of women over males, it isn’t clear what percentage each factor plays in.
In spite of how much amount of weight, we are aware that at least a portion of the reason why women live longer than men however not as in the past, is to have to do with the fact that several important non-biological aspects have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others are more complex. For example, Ttnews.ru/user/CarmeloFletcher/ 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 all countries are above the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl from every country could expect to live longer than her younger brother.
The chart below shows that although women have an advantage everywhere, cross-country differences can be substantial. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men, while in Bhutan the difference is less than half an hour.
__S.17__
__S.19__
The advantage of women in life expectancy was much lower in countries with higher incomes than it is today.
Let’s now look at how the advantage of women in longevity has changed with time. The following chart shows the men and women’s life expectancies when they were born in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two areas stand out.
There is an upward trend. Men and women in the US live a lot, much longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.
The gap is widening: While the female advantage in life expectancy was once tiny however, it has grown significantly with time.
If you select the option «Change country from the chart, verify that these two points apply to the other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.