Sex ratios at birth in populations of Eastern and Southern Africa

Abstract

Sex ratios at birth vary across populations and over time. The study reviews evidence of very low sex ratios in Bantu populations using demographic survey data and vital registration data from Eastern and Southern Africa. Results based on a large number of births from 17 countries indicate that on average Bantu populations tend to have slightly more female births than male births (sex ratio = 0.989), contrary to populations of West Africa and to other populations in the world where more male births occur than female births. Sir, Sex ratios at birth, or the ratio of the number of male births to that of female births, have fascinated scholars for several centuries. John Graunt already noted that in London over the 1628–1662 period about 14 boys were born for 13 girls (SR = 1.07), and Süssmilch devoted a full chapter ( § 409) of his book the “Die Göttliche Ordnung ” to sex ratios at births, where he first established the average of about 1.05 for European populations. The more data were coming from outside Europe, the more complex became the picture of sex ratios at births. Classic studies conducted in the United States showed that populations from African and Indian descent had lower sex ratios (1.03 and 1.02 respectively), whereas populations from Asian descent had higher sex ratios (1.07 to 1.08). World record high sex ratios (1.13) were found in Korea, for the 1921–1929 period, based on more than

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