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. Why do women live so more than men do today and why has this advantage increased over time? There isn’t much evidence and we have only limited answers. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all contribute to the fact that women live longer than men; However, we’re not sure how much the influence of each factor is.
In spite of the precise number of pounds, we know that at least part of the reason women live longer than men today however not as in the past, is to do with the fact that certain 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. 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 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 over the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl from any country can anticipate to live longer than her younger brother.
This chart is interesting in that it shows that the advantage of women exists everywhere, the cross-country differences are large. In Russia women live 10 years more than males. In Bhutan the gap is less than half a calendar year.
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The advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was lower in developed countries than it is now.
Let’s now look at how the gender advantage in longevity has changed with time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancy at the birth in the US between 1790 to 2014. Two distinct features stand زيوت تطويل الشعر out.
There is an upward trend. Women and men in the United States live longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.
Second, there’s a widening gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be very modest however it increased dramatically in the past century.
Using the option ‘Change country from the chart, confirm that the two points also apply to the other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.