The DOI matches its Crossref record; 10 of the 11 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Five Decades of Missing Females in China
Open accessAbstract
This paper seeks to explain the dearth of females in the population of China in cohorts born from the late 1930s to the present. We demonstrate that in virtually all cohorts. the shortage of females in comparison with males is revealed when the cohort is first enumerated in a census. Subsequently it barely changes, an indication that female losses occur very early in life. Using the high-quality data from the censuses and fertility surveys in China, we show that many of the births of the girls missing in the censuses were not reported in the surveys because they died very young. The incidence of excess early female mortality (probably infanticide) declined precipitously in the Communist period, but not to zero. The recent escalation in the proportion of young females missing in China has been caused largely by rapidly escalating sex-selective abortion.
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“Using high-quality demographic data collected or made available up to the 1990s,Coale & Banister (1994) documented the drop in the estimated excess female to male infant deaths ratio, from over 15% for births in the 1930s, 10% in the 1940s, and only about 2% for those born in the 1960s and 1970s, before edging up in the early 1980s.”
From The Social and Sociological Consequences of China's One-Child Policy (2021) · cites this paper as Coale & Banister 1994
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“Demographers have found an increasingly skewed Chinese gender ratio, which may result from female infanticide, parents' refusal to register daughters, parents' abandonment or lethal neglect of daughters, sex selection through selective abortion, or some combination of these factors (Arnold and Liu Zhaoxiang 1986;Coale and Banister 1994;Johnson 1996;Li Yongping and Peng Xizhe 2000;Zeng et al. 1993”
From China's One-Child Policy and the Empowerment of Urban Daughters (2002) · cites this paper as Coale and Banister 1994
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“According to China's 1990 census, there were 1.083 males for every female born between 1980 and 1984 (Coale and Banister 1994:461), the period when most of my students were born.”
From China's One-Child Policy and the Empowerment of Urban Daughters (2002) · cites this paper as Coale and Banister 1994:461
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“Soon after the one-child policy was put into force nationwide, sex ratio at birth, which had started to return to normal during the first decades of the socialist rule (Coale & Banister 1994), resumed an upward tick.”
From The Social and Sociological Consequences of China's One-Child Policy (2021) · cites this paper as Coale & Banister 1994
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“The census of 2000 put the population at 1.27 billion, 12 although some demographers regard this number as an underestimate. 13”
From The Effect of China's One-Child Family Policy after 25 Years (2005) · cites this paper as [13]
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“Survey respondents' mothers were far more likely than their fathers to do household chores.12”
From China's One-Child Policy and the Empowerment of Urban Daughters (2002) · cites this paper as [12]
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Citations
Cites
Regional Model Life Tables and Stable Populations
Coale, A. J., & Demeny, P. (1983) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/c2013-0-07295-7 · Cited by 1,229
Causes and Implications of the Recent Increase in the Reported Sex Ratio at Birth in China
Zeng, Y., Ping, T., Gu, B., Yi, X., Li, B., & Yongpiing, L. (1993) · Population and Development Review · doi:10.2307/2938438 · Cited by 512
Ichok, G. (1926) · La Presse Médicale · Cited by 389
The Missing Girls of China: A New Demographic Account
Johansson, S., & Nygren, O. (1991) · Population and Development Review · doi:10.2307/1972351 · Cited by 363
Effects of Family Composition on Mortality Differentials by Sex Among Children in Matlab, Bangladesh
Muhuri, P. K., & Preston, S. H. (1991) · Population and Development Review · doi:10.2307/1971948 · Cited by 244
Rapid Population Change in China, 1952-1982.
McN., G., & Coale, A. J. (1984) · Population and Development Review · doi:10.2307/1973297 · Cited by 196
Self-citationRegional Model Life Tables and Stable Populations. Second Edition
Coale, A. J., & Demeny, P. G. (1983) · Cited by 161
Self-citationThe Effect of Age Misreporting in China on the Calculation of Mortality Rates at Very High Ages
Coale, A. J., & Li, S. (1991) · Demography · doi:10.2307/2061281 · Cited by 104
Self-citationLimited dependence of the human sex ratio on birth order and parental ages.
Ms, T., Mantel, N., & Stark, C. R. (1971) · PubMed · Cited by 34
Age patterns of chinese marital fertility, 1950–1981
Lavely, W. (1986) · Demography · doi:10.2307/2061439 · Cited by 21
Research works printed but not linked: 6
- 1988, Recent Changes in Vital Statistics and New Population Projection
- Shim, 1991, An Empirical Study on Abortion in Korea
- 1990, Data of China Fertility and Contraception Survey (Whole Country)
- 1991, 10 Percent Sampling Tabulation on the 1990 Population Census of the People’s Republic of China
- Teitelbaum, 1971, Limited Dependence of the Human Sex Ratio on Birth Order, American Journal of Human Genetics, 23, 271
- Wolf, 1980, Marriages and Adoption in China, 1845–1945
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Malmberg, K. (1997) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.314.7093.1512 · Cited by 1,286
The Competitive Saving Motive: Evidence from Rising Sex Ratios and Savings Rates in China
Wei, S., & Zhang, X. (2011) · Journal of Political Economy · doi:10.1086/660887 · Cited by 994
Gupta, M. D., Jiang, Z., Bohua, L., Xie, Z., Chung, W., & Hwa-Ok, B. (2003) · The Journal of Development Studies · doi:10.1080/00220380412331293807 · Cited by 967
The Emotional Construction of Morals
PRINZ, J. J. (2009) · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199571543.001.0001 · Cited by 789
The Effect of China's One-Child Family Policy after 25 Years
Hesketh, T., Lu, L., & Xing, Z. W. (2005) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejmhpr051833 · Cited by 596
Metadata
- Authors
- Coale, A. J., & Banister, J.
- Affiliations
- Princeton University (US)
- United States Census Bureau (US)
- Venue
- Demography
- Publisher
- Duke University Press
- Published
- 1994-08-01
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 459-479
- ISSN
- 0070-3370 (ISSN-L)
- 1533-7790
- OpenAlex
- W1969699349
- Cited by
- 447
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 57 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 20 · 2012: 19
- FWCI
- 22.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Demography (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DigitalGeorgetown (Georgetown University Library) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Reproductive Health and Contraception
- Social Sciences › Demography › Insurance, Mortality, Demography, Risk Management
- Keywords
- sex ratio at birth, sex-selective abortion, infanticide, female mortality, census undercounting, communist era, China
- MeSH terms
- Abortion, Legal, Adolescent, Adult, Cause of Death, Child, Child, Preschool, China, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Demography, Developing Countries, Female, Humans, Infant, Infant, Newborn, Infanticide, Male, Middle Aged, Mortality, Pregnancy, Sex Preselection, Sex Ratio, Cohort Studies, Survival Analysis
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