It has been a belief as old as time that women outlive men. But where did it comes from— was it ever backed by a study or was it simply another sexist belief? Whatever the case may be, this belief is being washed over by a well-researched, scientifically-backed study that proves otherwise. Yes, women don’t normally outlive men.
It is the other way around and here’s what you need to know about it:
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The Lowdown
The conventional saying that women outlive men has been challenged by a study. Keep in mind that we especially talk about married men and men with university degrees. The study simply brought to us the finding that men have a “substantial possibility” of outliving women. It is true that they have a lower life expectancy than the other sex but they generally outlive women.
The Research
The research was undertaken in Denmark. The study showed that between 25% and 50% of males have outlived women amongst the hundred thousand they observed. They also suggested that summing the average lifespan can be a “simplistic metric”. This is because huge differences in life expectancy can cover major overlaps in lifespan between the sexes.
The study was presented in the BMJ Open journal. It looked at data on the lifespans of men and women spanning almost 200 years across 199 different nations. What did we say about well-researched? It showed that men are more likely to outlive women especially those who are married or have advanced degrees. The women they outlive are likely to be single or only have a high school education.
What Else Was Revealed?
The data also revealed other many interesting things. For instance, up until the 1970s, the possibility of men outliving women decreased in developed nations. However, after that, it shot up across all demographics. Researchers note that smoking and other behavioral variations are to be blamed for the life expectancy rates.
It concluded by absolutely tarnishing the age-old belief. They said, “Although male life expectancy is generally lower than female life expectancy, and male death rates are usually higher at all ages, males have a substantial chance of outliving females.”
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