Men's lifespans globally catching up with women, linked to healthier habits.
People unquestionably experience longer lifespans nowadays compared to earlier times. However, due to various factors such as behavior, biology, and other influences, not everyone enjoys the same improvements in life expectancy.
Traditionally, women have tended to live longer than men, but evolving lifestyles may be contributing to a gradual narrowing of this gap, with men now seeing increased life expectancy as well.
As per a report from New Scientist, over the past century, people around the world have lived longer on average. This trend is expected to continue as countries grow wealthier. Despite this positive development, men and women consistently experience different life expectancies.
Women generally live longer than men. To understand the reasons behind these observations, researchers analyzed mortality data from 194 countries between 1990 and 2010. Based on their life expectancy trends, the researchers categorized these countries into five distinct groups.
The report further mentioned that the group with the highest average life expectancy was made up of the countries with the highest incomes, such as Australia, Japan, the US, the UK, and other parts of western Europe. The group with the lowest life expectancies was comprised of just Rwanda and Uganda.
When comparing how long men and women tend to live in these countries, the greatest jump took place among men in Rwanda and Uganda, who had an average life expectancy of just 30.85 years in 1990, increasing by 14.37 years to 45.22 years in 2010.
Among women in these countries, life expectancy increased over this period by just 0.94 years, from 50.37 years to 51.31 years.