Women Problems for China

I must confess that I enjoy the Pocket World in Figures that the Economist gave me as part of my subscription offer: I love information comparing the nations of the world on a wide variety of subjects. One which the book lists is the male - female ratio in countries across the world.

I note this because a recent BBC article suggests that China will face a shortage of tens of millions of women within a generation. All this while the over-60 population will rapidly increase to around a third of the population, and while the overall population increases another 200,000,000 to around 1,500,000,000 in the next quarter century. To put things in perspective, the Chinese population is expected to increase by a number almost equalling the sum of all Americans. And to put things in greater perspective, this is a phenomenal increase considering that the Chinese population when Mao assumed power was a mere 400,000,000 (closer to our projected population by this midcentury). Ironically, the one child population and a preference for boys is to blame for the overrepresentation of males and seniors in Chinese society, and yet seems to have only gone so far towards slowing population growth there. It is truly beyond my comprehension how so many people can live sustainably in that country.

But I digress from the main point of this post: male female ratios. Here are some countries' breakdowns (number of men for every 100 women), courtesy the boffins at the Economist:

UAE - 214 (!!!)
Saudi Arabia -117
China, Pakistan - 106 (already pretty high)
India - 105
Bangladesh, Taiwan - 104
Cote d'Ivoire, Iran, Malaysia - 103
Algeria, Nigeria, Turkey - 102
Egypt, Peru, Phillipines, Singapore, South Korea, Venezuela - 101
World (average) - 101
Indonesia, Kenya - 100
Canada, Chile, Israel - 98
Brazil, USA - 97
Japan, EU (average), Mexico, South Africa, Thailand - 96
Switzerland - 94
Kazakhstan (CIA Factbook) - 93
Hong Kong - 89
Lithuania, Russia - 87
Estonia, Ukraine - 85
Latvia - 84

So what can we learn from this breakdown? We of course should always be wary of statistics, but nevertheless a few things become clear to me. First, a large majority of the world's countries have ratios somewhere between 100 (or a man for every woman) and 95 or so (a few women extra). Anything beyond this range seems like a recipe for trouble and turmoil. There are some exceptions: South Korea has more men than women (but has one of the highest population percentages on the internet ... perhaps a necessity for the extra men?). However, by and large, you can see that countries with an excess of men either have problems or are out looking for them. Likewise for countries that have a dearth of men - these are mostly former Soviet republics, the lack of men there having to do with their smoking, drinking and killing one another (the average Russian man lives to 60, the average Russian woman to 75). And also, now you can see why women from the former Soviet republics are so interested in meeting some nice, sober Western guys. If you have the means, I highly recommend it.

As for the extra Chinese, Indian and Saudi men, well, I leave that to the reader...any suggestions?