IELTS Discussion Forum

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's the main reason women are more likely to live longer than men? And why does this benefit increase over time? The evidence is sketchy and علامات الحمل بولد we're left with only partial answers. Although we know that there are biological, psychological and environmental factors which all play a part in the longevity of women over males, it isn't clear what percentage each factor plays in.

In spite of how much number of pounds, we know that a large portion of the reason women live so much longer than men do today and not previously, 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. There are other issues that are more intricate. For علامات الحمل بولد 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. We can see that every country is above the diagonal line of parity - this means that in all countries the newborn girl is likely to live longer than a new boy.1

The chart above shows that although the female advantage exists across all countries, the global differences are significant. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of less that half a year.

__S.17__

__S.19__

In the richer countries, the longevity advantage for women was smaller

Let's look at the way that female advantages in terms of longevity has changed over time. The next chart compares male and female life expectancy at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two points stand out.

First, there's an upward trend: Men 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.

Second, the gap is getting wider: Although the female advantage in life expectancy used to be very small, it has increased substantially in the past.

It is possible to verify that these principles are also applicable to other countries that have data by clicking on the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.