Men Outnumber Women, Population Structure Worries China

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, September 27, 2002

Men Outnumber Women, Population Structure Worries China

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According to 5th national census data released last April, China had a gender ratio of 116.9 newborns in the way with 100 baby girls there were born 116.9 baby boys, pointing to a much greater difference over the international index of 105 and worse sex imbalance with men outnumbering women.

After several years there will be 50 million Chinese males can not find a wife, foreign paper said. The prediction is rather sensational but the ill balance between newborn girls and boys deserve concern and high vigilance of the whole society, according to population experts.

The high ratio, if not be checked, will badly affect population structure as well as cast negative impact on normal operation and moral system of future society, said Zheng Zizhen, a researcher with a Guangdong institute on sociology and demography.

In Beidahuang (or the Great Northern Wilderness) of China's northeast Sanjiang Plain, where many young men were sent to cultivate the land in the 60s and 70s, once run a saying that "the place is so deserted, with only rabbits and wolfs around, but no young women are found". In some textile cities such as Sanming City women outnumbered men while in steel cities like Panzhihua it is of the opposite case. Governments once made much effort to solve the problem of marriages between ill-balanced men and women. But these typical examples are results of certain historical periods and industrial structure, if now similar problem is seen in newborn babies we can only blame ourselves.

The rising sex ratio among newborns will firstly put much pressure on marriage, leaving many men couldn't finding spouse, said Tian Xueyuan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Then follows the impact on family and society. Affected by market economy, recent years have seen rising number of extramarital affairs and the divorce rate has been increasing. Once eliminated mercenary marriage, child marriage and women trafficking appeared again, and will get worse if the sex ratio is not checked. Besides, it will be more difficult for men to find jobs, causing excess of labors in coming one or two decades.

The last is the problem of aging population. In China aged people are jointly taken care of by the society, their families and themselves. Forty years later the low sex ratio among senior people will rise with reduced number of lonely old women, and more aged people are expected to spend the rest of their life in their families.

By PD Online Staff Member Li Heng

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