The ratio between the number of males and females in a society is referred to as the gender ratio. This ratio is not stable but instead shaped by biological, social, technological, cultural, and economic forces. And in turn the gender ratio itself has an impact on society, demography, and the economy.
In this entry we provide an overview of the variation and the changes of the gender ratio across the world. We study how it changes from birth to late life; the forces that change the ratio of men to women. The sex ratio β the share of the population that is female β varies across the world. And globally in the share of women in the world was In the map we see the sex ratio of populations: this is shown as the percentage of the total population which is female.
Countries over 50 percent shown in blue have more females than males; those below 50 percent shown in red have fewer females. Most countries have a female share of the population between 49 and 51 percent within one percentage point of parity.
Across the world there are differences in the sex ratio at different life stages. This imbalance in the male and female population can in some cases be traced back to birth: in some countries the number of boys and girls born each year is significantly skewed.
In the map we see the differences in sex ratio at birth across the world. Here the sex ratio is measured as the number of male births for every female births; a value greater than indicates there are more boys than girls born that year. A figure of would indicate that there are male births for every female births. The first striking point is that in every single country of the world there are more boys born than girls.
