Eli5: Why do women live longer than men on average, even among the older population like supercentenarians?
In: 2368
Not the same answer everywhere, but in much of the world (East Europe and Asia, or 1950’s stay at home mums America), the answer is drinking alcohol, where
1. Drinking is a thing many more of one gender do than the other because it’s the norm in that place and at that time,
2. Alcohol is a slow acting liver poison that kills humans three decades prematurely.
It’s important not just to look at norms today but also at norms in the past who would have affected the people alive today.
In many places this is so rampant that it heavily skews the older generation surviving population towards either men or women. As it kills only after people are done having babies, it doesn’t tend to skew subsequent generations.
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