Men and women make up about the same number of people in the world. With 102 men for every 100 women, men have a slight lead.
Each year, more boys are born than girls, and the number of adult men is higher than that of adult women around the world. Despite this, men tend to live shorter lives than women. When it comes to adults age 55 and up, there are more women than men.
As of April 2017, the United Nations thought there were 3,776,294,273 men in the world, while there were 3,710,295,643 women.
Populations of Men and Women Around the World
The number of men to women varies around the world for many different reasons. Here are the three main reasons why. Since women tend to live longer than men, you would think that the number of women would be higher. But more boys are born than girls all over the world. In some countries, migration can change the number of men and women. For instance, in countries where men do most of the work, the ratio of men to women may be higher because more men move there to find work.
Most of the time, there are more men than women in South and East Asia, especially in China and India. This may be because there are more boys than girls born there. In the Middle East, too, there are more men than women, but this is likely because more men are moving there than women. In Eastern Europe, there are more women than men. This could be because men tend to live longer than women.
Male and female birth rates
The number of boys born around the world is naturally higher than the number of girls born, and studies have shown that more girls die during pregnancy than boys.
In some places, it’s better to have a son than a daughter. In India, for example, if the first child is a son, the parents are not likely to have any more children. If, on the other hand, they have a girl, they will keep having kids until they have a boy. Based on the order in which boys and girls are born, sex-selective abortion also changes the number of boys and girls at birth.
Childhood Gender Ratios
Boys are usually more likely to die before they turn 5 than girls. Boys are more likely to have problems at birth, like birth defects, preterm births, respiratory infections, and heart problems, until they are a year old. This is probably because boys are more likely to be born early than girls. Boys also have weaker immune systems, so they are more likely to get diseases like tetanus and malaria. This is called the “male disadvantage,” and it still holds true as an adult.
Infanticide affects both boys and girls, but in countries where having a son is more valued, girls are more likely to die because they aren’t cared for or treated equally, or because they are killed as babies.
Ratios of Men to Women in Adulthood
People think that if there wasn’t sex discrimination, there should be more than 130 million more women than there are now. People think that selective abortion, infanticide, and deaths in adulthood caused by not being cared for as a child are all parts of this problem, which has been called “missing women.”
Effects of an Uneven Number of Men and Women
In places like North Africa and Asia, where having sons is more important than having daughters, there are more “missing women” and more men than women. This leaves a lot of men who aren’t married, which can cause problems if they can’t have sons to keep the male lineage going. Since women tend to marry up in these societies, this hurts the poor men a lot. Because of their low socioeconomic status, this is said to lead to more violence and crime.
