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 more than men do today and how has this advantage increased over time? There isn’t much evidence and we have only some solutions. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all play a role in the fact that women live longer than men; however, we do not know how much the influence of each factor is.
We are aware that women live longer than men, regardless of their weight. But, this 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, Dostoyanieplaneti.ru/?option=com_k2&view=itemlist&task=user&id=7700678 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 over the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl in every country can expect to live longer than her brothers.
This chart shows that, although women have an advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries can be substantial. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the gap is only half a year.
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In rich countries the female advantage in longevity was smaller
Let’s look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart plots the life expectancy of males and females at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two points stand out.
There is an upward trend. as well as women in the US are living much, much longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.
The gap is getting wider: Although the female advantage in life expectancy used to be quite small but it has risen significantly in the past.
It is possible to verify that these principles are also applicable to other countries that have data by selecting the “Change country” option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.