For years, the census data in China has recorded a significant imbalance in the sex ratio toward the male population, meaning there are fewer women than men. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as the missing women or missing girls of China.[1] China's official census report from 2000 shows that there were 117 boys for every 100 girls. The sex imbalance in some rural areas is even higher, at 130 boys to 100 girls, compared to a global average of 105 or 106 boys to 100 girls.[2]
Some early research into the sex ratio imbalance pointed to sex-selective abortion practices in the wake of China's one-child policy.[3][4] However, a number of studies have concluded that China's sex ratio was in fact closer to the norm, with population statistics skewed by age because of the number of rural people who did not register their baby girls (i.e., so that they could avoid China's family planning policies).[5]: 175–176 These studies observed that the sex ratio began to even out around 7 years old, when children were registered for school.[5]: 176 Similarly, in December 2016, researchers at the University of Kansas reported that the missing women might be largely a result of administrative under-reporting and that delayed registration of females, instead of sex-selective abortion practices, which could account for as many as 10 to 15 million of the missing women since 1982.[6][7] Researchers found unreported females appear on government censuses decades later due to delayed registration, as families tried to avoid penalties when girls were born, which implies that the sex disparity was likely exaggerated significantly in previous analyses.[8][9][10]
^Ebenstein, Avraham (2010). "The 'Missing Girls' of China and the Unintended Consequences of the One Child Policy". The Journal of Human Resources. 45 (1): 88–115. doi:10.1353/jhr.2010.0003. S2CID201752851.