The Missing Girls of China: A New Demographic Account

Abstract

This account of the missing girls in Chinas high sex ratios verifies Hulls analysis and 1) assumes 105-106 boys per 100 girls as evidenced by 240 years of Swedish demographic data 2) verifies the sex ratio for reported second and higher parity births bases on the 2 per thousand fertility survey (SFPC2) in 1988 3) introduces adopted children data from SFPC2 which accounts for 50% of the missing girls and 4) calculates excess female infant deaths based on international demographic data for 130 boys per 100 girls as the expected ratio. The Swedish sex ratio data does not vary significantly between regions by parity or age of mother or by big differences due to race or socioeconomic circumstances and may only be indirectly influenced by these factors in utero as miscarriage or stillbirth. The Swedish data were found comparable to 12 Western industrialized countries 1974-84. It is expected that the larger the cohort the smaller the variation is sex ratios annually such that the Chinese data with 200 times larger cohorts should fall within the narrow range of 105-6 boys per 100 girls of all live births registered. Racial differences between Caucasians and Chinese are not expected because in the 1953 census the sex ratio among infant 500000 in 1987. Using the adoption figures in calculating the sex ratio a closer approximation is obtained. The sex ratio of 114 for infant deaths compared to the 130 average would indicate differential neglect of infant girls or 4 per 1000 excess female infant deaths per live girl births.