In which year more girls are born? Scientists have explained why more boys are born

Gordienko Ekaterina

The topic of the speech is very relevant today. The number of boys born is greater than that of girls, and against the backdrop of the conflict that we are seeing in Ukraine and Syria, many skeptics are predicting larger-scale military actions, citing the sad experience of many wars, including the Great Patriotic War. And the expression “Many boys are born means war” sounds on the lips of many peoples. Really - to war? Why? What do the statistics say? What connection can there be between tiny, helpless babies and a terrible disaster that takes and breaks many lives? If more boys are born now, then why is it so difficult for girls to find their other half, and we are increasingly meeting unmarried, lonely women.

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Regional scientific and practical conference for schoolchildren

"Open World"

Direction of research work: Man and society (sociology)

Subject: “Who are born more: boys or girls?”

Municipal educational institution secondary school No. 5 in the village of Zhuravskogo,

Grade 10.

Scientific supervisor: Mikhailova Olga Igorevna,teacher of history and social studies, Municipal Educational Institution Secondary School No. 5

I. Introduction

II. Main part

2.1. Are there more boys?

2.2. The reason for the surge in births of boys is a decrease in miscarriages.

2.3. Natural balance or political factor?

2.4. The influence of the season on the sex ratio.

2.5. Demographic situation in the Russian Federation.

III. Conclusion

Bibliography

Applications

Introduction.

There is a popular saying: if more boys are born in a country than girls, this is a harbinger of war.

The topic of the speech is very relevant today. The number of boys born is greater than that of girls, and against the backdrop of the conflict that we are seeing in Ukraine and Syria, many skeptics are predicting larger-scale military actions, citing the sad experience of many wars, including the Great Patriotic War. And the expression “Many boys are born means war” sounds on the lips of many peoples. Really - to war? Why? What do the statistics say? What connection can there be between tiny, helpless babies and a terrible disaster that takes and breaks many lives? If more boys are born now, then why is it so difficult for girls to find their other half, and we are increasingly meeting unmarried, lonely women. The relevance of the topic is still determined by the severity of the demographic crisis in modern Russia and its regions. Despite the stabilization of the internal political situation, the growth of economic indicators and the increase in the general well-being of Russians, one of the most acute threats to the country remains the problem of natural population decline. The demographic crisis has a negative impact on all spheres of Russian society. The low birth rate and high mortality rate of the Russian population already today set the limits for the growth of the country's economic development, reduce the level of its competitiveness in the world market, and create a threat to Russia's national security.

Target: Find out whether there is a justification for the statement “Many boys are born - leading to war.”

Tasks:

• Consider options for hypotheses related to the causes of uneven sex ratios.
• Find out whether there are differences in the causes of child mortality during the Second World War and in peacetime.
• Determine the effectiveness of demographic policy at different stages.
• Find out why the sex ratio changes with age.

Are there more boys?

Numerous demographic statistics indicate that during and after long wars, the birth rate of boys increases noticeably. During the First World War, 1-2.5% more boys were born in warring European countries than during the “peaceful” years. The largest increase was observed in Germany, where the sex ratio of newborns increased to 108.5. The same phenomenon was observed during the Second World War. In England and France, for example, by 1943 this ratio increased by 1.5-2% compared to the “peaceful” years.

To explain this phenomenon, called the “war years phenomenon,” many hypotheses have been put forward. Some authors believe that during war, younger people get married, and the decrease in the average age of parents is associated with an increase in the proportion of boys in the offspring. Others attribute this to an increase in the number of first-time mothers, who are also more likely to give birth to boys. Still others explain the change in the birth rate between the sexes by mothers taking a break from pregnancy and a longer interval between births. The fourth, finally, reduce the reason to changes in diet - reducing the consumption of meat and other proteins.

None of these hypotheses have collected sufficient evidence. The “war years phenomenon” still remains a mystery, sometimes providing food for mystical explanations.

It turns out that scientists talk about a larger number of newborn boys not before, but during and after wars. Such studies were carried out for a long time and repeatedly, but before the First World War of 1914-1918 there was too little statistical data, and they were too inaccurate for clear and unambiguous conclusions. The English demographer James analyzed wars. But neither during the Russian-Swedish War (1789-1790), nor during the wars with Napoleon, nor during the Franco-Prussian War, etc. no significant fluctuations were detected. In fact, almost the only conflicts with clearly identified fluctuations were the First and Second World Wars, where there was a significant increase in the birth rate of boys, and the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, where there was a decrease in the birth rate of boys—in fact, more girls were born than boys.

In 1946, the work of S.A. was published in the collection of works of the Department of Health Organization of the Leningrad Pediatric Institute “Issues of the Protection of Motherhood and Childhood”. Novoselsky “The influence of war on the sex composition of those born.”The author took for the study data on fertility in England, France, Germany and individual cities of Russia in the period from 1908 to 1925. That is, several years before the First World War of 1914, the years of its course, and several years after.

According to his statistics, it is clearly visible that in the last years of the war and after it, there was a surge in the birth of boys - 106-108 boys per 100 girls born, with a ratio of 103-105 boys per 100 girls born in peacetime. However, in the years preceding the war, no more boys were born than in normal peacetime.

The reason for the surge in births of boys is a decrease in miscarriages.

The author suggests that the reason for the increase in the number of boys being born is a decrease in intrauterine mortality. The absence of men who went to war leads to a decrease in the number of conceptions. The woman’s body rests, the necessary supply of microelements and vitamins is restored, which leads to an easier course of subsequent pregnancy and a decrease in the likelihood of miscarriage.

According to S.A. Novoselsky, the sex ratio at conception is 125-130 boys per 100 girls. Many male fetuses die in 1-3 months after conception, and in subsequent months the mortality rate of male fetuses is 160-170 per 100 female fetuses. Thus, a female body that is rested and prepared for conception has a greater likelihood of a successful pregnancy and resolution, which allows more boys to be born safely. There is also a factor of a large number of marriages and the birth of children among young, primiparous women, in whom the likelihood of miscarriages and intrauterine death of infants is much lower compared to multiparous women.

Natural balance or political factor?

Scientists have proven (in particular, during a study by Moscow biologists within the framework of the “Animals in the City” program, under the leadership of Andrei Dmitrievich Poyarkov, PhD, “Institute of Ecology and Evolution” of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as research by foreign specialists) that if dogs or other animals are shot in any territory, this leads to an increase in their birth rate. Perhaps the increase in the number of boys born is also a kind of nature’s response to their destruction - after all, during wars, the male population dies many times more than the female population. Men fight and die. This means that more men should be born. To maintain balance.

In times of famine, girls are more often born than boys.This conclusion was made by sociologist and demographer from the City University of New York Shige Song during a large-scale study of the dynamics of sex ratios in China in the 20th century. In his study, the scientist was based on data obtained during a national survey in 1982, which involved more than three hundred thousand Chinese women who gave birth to offspring between September 1929 and July 1982. This period included the famine of 1959-1961, the so-called “Great Leap Forward Famine,” considered one of the largest social disasters of the 20th century. Then, according to various estimates, from 20 to 40 million people died in China.

Shige Song found that between April 1960, a year after the famine began, and October 1963, almost two years after it ended, significantly fewer boys were born than girls. If at the beginning of this period the ratio was 109 boys for every 100 girls, then at the end it was 99 boys for every 100 girls, which from a demographic point of view is a very significant change. It was not until July 1965 that sex ratios returned to their previous levels. A similar situation was observed during the Great Patriotic War. After earthquakes or natural disasters, the number of male births also temporarily increases. Cause it seems again is stress . Earthquakes in Chile in 2005. It turned out that residents of the region, who were in the second and third months of pregnancy at that time, gave birth to 5.8 percent more girls than in normal times. The authors of the study suggested that in this way a natural mechanism is manifested, aimed at the survival of the population in conditions of large-scale disasters.

The data obtained confirm the hypothesis that the sex of offspring depends on environmental conditions.

According to this theory, for a population to survive in the face of famine, women must produce more girls, since the latter are more vulnerable and malnutrition has a significantly negative impact on their health and survival than on the health and survival of females. Subsequently, fewer offspring will be obtained from the male part of the population than from the female part.

In addition, the mother's weight before conception apparently has a decisive influence on the sex of the infant.Italian researcher Angelo Gagnacci, a doctor at one of Modena’s clinics, writes about this. According to his data, women weighing less than 54 kilograms are noticeably more likely to give birth to boys than others: for every 98 girls, 100 boys are born. Women who believe they will live to an old age are more likely to have sons than daughters, a new study of British women has found.

How exactly the female body regulates the sex of the unborn child is still unknown. One hypothesis is that women in a prosperous environment have increased levels of testosterone, which contributes to the survival of the male embryo in the womb.

Sarah Jones from the University of Kent wondered whether the ratio of boys to girls had anything to do with psychological factors, such as a woman's assessment of her life expectancy. Previous research has shown that people can estimate it fairly accurately, perhaps because it depends on their physical fitness and the quality of their environment, as well as the life expectancy of their parents and grandparents. Jones interviewed more than 600 women in Gloucestershire who had given birth to their first child in the past four years. Women were asked about the age of their first child and the time they were likely to die.

It turned out that women who predicted many more years of life for themselves were more often the mothers of boys.The ratio of boys to girls in the group of women who believed they still had more than 60 years to live was 108:100, while for women who believed they had less than 48 years left to live, it was 78:100.

The researcher suspects that the woman's well-being and sense of comfort in the environment contribute to the fact that the child turns out to be a boy. Post-war women predicted a long, happy life for themselves and, as proof of Sarah Jones' theory, an increase in the number of boys born.

Since ancient times, there has been a belief that an increase in the number of boys born promises imminent wars. Scientists are skeptical about this sign, but the fact that during major wars and the first years after them much more boys are born is generally accepted and is called the “war years phenomenon.”

So, most likely the main reasons that more boys were born than girls during the war and post-war times are as follows:

The so-called natural balance (scientists have found that the male sex begins to significantly predominate in the population if its size decreases), a decrease in miscarriages, the mother’s rest from giving birth to children, the mother’s weight, stress, victory in military operations and as a factor of hope for a long and happy life. This problem of sex ratio is of interest to many scientists, and today several more interesting points have been identified that can affect the gender of the unborn child.

At the current level of development of technology and science, it is not always correct to nod to nature. For example, in China, 116 and even 123 boys are born per hundred girls. This figure is much higher than both the global ratio and the post-war surges. The reason for such a big difference is the demographic policy pursued in China - “one family - one child”, the desire of most families to have a son - an heir and breadwinner in old age, as well as such a level of development of medicine when the sex of a child can be determined long before his birth . Unwanted girls are getting rid of, the gap between the numbers of boys and girls born is growing, and even nature, defeated by modern equipment, is unable to reduce it.Selective killing of girls.

“The phenomena described by The Telegraph have existed for a long time,” says Igor Beloborodov, director of the Institute of Demographic Research.

In China, 100 girls are born for every 120 boys; in India, the ratio is 112 to 100. This is largely the result of selective abortions: unwanted girls are “weeded out” after ultrasound examinations, Beloborodov explains. “The preference given to boys under the one-child policy in China is a feature of patriarchal cultures,” explains Igor Beloborodov. As a result, “in China, 40 million men of working age no longer have wives, and this is a huge number,” the demographer emphasizes.

In India, he said, over the past 20 years, 20 million girls have been aborted. The phenomenon of gendercide, by analogy with genocide, has emerged - murder based on gender. In some areas of India, there is even “infanticide” - the killing of newborn girls. The study has shown that the phenomenon of the so-called “disappearing girls”, since they are destroyed in the womb of their mothers because of their gender, is very aggravated among second children in Indian families in which the first child girl. During the first pregnancy, there is no clear preference for a boy, but in subsequent pregnancies this tendency is clearly manifested. When it is discovered that the family is again about to have a girl, the temptation to resort to abortion is very strong. According to the latest Indian census (2011), in the country there are For every 1,000 boys aged 0-6 years, there are only 314 girls, the lowest ratio recorded since the country's independence in 1947. As a result, polygamy is emerging in India in the form of polyandry, where a woman lives with her husband and at the same time cohabits with his unmarried spouses. brothers, the expert says.Another option is when young girls are simply kidnapped for marriage. To curb this phenomenon, it is not enough to say “no” to selective abortion, or “no” to infanticide. “It is necessary to frame this issue in terms of rights, and specifically the rights of girls and women, in order to change the attitudes towards them that are deeply rooted in the culture of this region of the world. “The dropout of girls as a phenomenon is one way or another passing to Europe,” many doctors say. In Europe, there is a serious debate about whether to ban gender determination using ultrasound. There are often cases when the sex of the child is not the one needed. But there are also mistakes when determining gender using ultrasound.

Even the time of year affects the sex ratio.

Gagnacci's research shows that fall conception rates result in more boys being born, while the chances of having a girl are higher when conceiving between March and May. Why the sex ratio varies seasonally is unclear. Perhaps it has to do with the nutrition of a particular season.

Male embryos have an advantage at the stage of entering the uterus. “The cells of male embryos divide faster, and their metabolic processes occur faster,” writes Gagnacci.. However, when cells divide rapidly, the likelihood of failure increases. The effect of poisons and other harmful substances is aggravated. Thus, during pregnancy and immediately after birth, the likelihood of developmental abnormalities in boys is higher.

Scientists also debate whetherchemical pollution of the environmenton the ratio between the births of boys and girls. American researcher D. Davis from the University of Pittsburgh is convinced of this.

For example, a chemical production accident in Sefeso (Italy) had a significant impact on the sex ratio of newborns. During the accident, the poison dioxin was released into the environment. “Overall, in the seven years after the disaster, almost twice as many girls were born as boys in most affected regions,” Davis reports. Only gradually the ratio leveled out and returned to its normal value. American scientists studying various areas found that in the least polluted areas 48.3% of newborns were girls, and in the most polluted areas 50.3%. The scientists reported their discovery at a meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, which took place on October 17 in Montreal. Such discoveries have led some scientists to believe that sperm are carriers Y chromosomes leading to the birth of boys, are weaker than sperm carrying the X chromosome, and therefore moreexposed to stress caused by the environment.

Some substances affect sperm and prevent the development of the embryo in the mother's womb. This is especially true for sperm containing the male Y chromosome. Nicotine is also a harmful substance. Japanese and Danish scientists have found that smoking before conception and during pregnancy greatly reduces the likelihood of having boys.

Many believe that in wealthy Western countries, a woman's health and living conditions influence the gender of her children - a link previously only proven to exist in developing countries. It has long been known that in developing countries, women with poorer nutritional status give birth to more girls than boys. One explanation for this fact is that evolutionary adaptation in this way provides humans with the largest number of grandchildren.

The idea is that if parents can raise a strong, healthy, attractive son, he will provide them with a large number of grandchildren from many women. However, the “expenses” for boys are greater both during gestation in the womb and later, in the process of raising them. Therefore, if parents have few resources, it is easier for them not to take risks and have daughters who will provide for at least a certain number of grandchildren.

The small island of Jinoji in Japan is called the "island of boys." For many years now, 3.5 times more boys than girls have been born here. Japanese scientists see the reason for this in drinking water - it contains many alkaline substances.

The problem of a child’s gender has intrigued our society for hundreds of years. Currently, there is extensive material on the sex ratio in humans at birth. This material is quite controversial and contains a large number of inexplicable mysteries and facts. In some works, attempts are made to find the relationship between the gender of the child born and the profession of the parents, their build and even temperament. There is a “seasonal” conception hypothesis, a “food” hypothesis, a “blood renewal” hypothesis, and a “Chinese calendar”. Some researchers try to connect this with ecology and economic conditions or derive mathematical formulas that they believe can predetermine the gender of the child.

According to statistics, it is also known that:

• Boys are more likely to be born at first births
• The younger the parents, the more likely they are to conceive a boy (and vice versa)
• If pregnancy occurs soon after an abortion, girls are more likely to be born
• Children of the same age, as a rule, are of the same gender

If the interval between births is more than 3 years, children of the opposite sex are born. Attempts to explain this phenomenon have not led to any definite result. None of the hypotheses has enough evidence. Most likely, a complex set of genetic, mental and social factors is at work here. Nature hid the key to unlocking this secret far away. And probably not in vain. It is not difficult to imagine that attempts to interfere with the natural self-regulating mechanism of sex ratio will not lead to anything good.

Demographic situation in the Russian Federation.

Is Russia facing a sharp imbalance of newborn boys and girls, and in the future - a shortage of women? China and India have long faced this phenomenon. And now a clear preponderance of boys is observed in Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Serbia and Bosnia. Experts believe that the growing number of bachelors is a serious problem, but in Russia another problem is much more serious - small families. We should be concerned about the huge gap between male and female mortality and early orphanhood of children. Men in Russia die earlier.All-Russian Population Census recorded a fact: there are 10.5 million more women. Men expend more energy to survive, and they engage in a lot of risky behavior (alcoholism, drug addiction, road accidents, various types of injuries). For Russia, unlike many countries, “gender preference for children” is not yet typical. In Russia, in conditions of general small children - family orientation towards the birth of one baby; the gender of the child often does not matter much. With all the gender changes, there is an even more alarming trend - the reluctance to have children at all, says Igor Beloborodov, director of the Institute of Demographic Research.“Mass childlessness is observed in different parts of the world: in Germany, Shanghai, Hong Kong.” In Europe, for example, 20 percent of young women are childless. Some of them are staunch opponents of childbearing, some are simply typical representatives of “a consumer society who are carried away by their careers,” and some are gay, says the demographer. I think we need to work with the reproductive stereotypes of young people - with ideas about the family and the number of children in it. The state encourages people who grew up with few children to have two or more children. They have already accepted that motivation. Already in adolescence, a person has ideas about what a family should be like." It is difficult to change reproductive stereotypes if this was the result of long-term historical changes, but it is possible. Material and financial assistance, agitation, creating a friendly attitude in society towards large families - all this set of measures can increase the fertility rate.

CurrentlyThe directions of demographic policy in the Russian Federation are as follows:

• Maternity benefits.
• A one-time benefit for women registered in medical institutions in the early stages of pregnancy.
• A one-time benefit for the birth of a child.
• Monthly benefit for the period of parental leave until the child reaches 1.5 years of age.
• Issuance of maternity capital at the birth of a second child.

Demographic policy in our country has yielded positive results. 2013 turned out to be a happy year for domestic demographics. For the first time in many years, natural growth was recorded in Russia. 23 thousand more compatriots were born than died. The driver of positive changes was a significant increase in the birth rate: from 1214 thousand people in 1999 to 1901 thousand last year.

However, skeptics are in no hurry to rejoice. There are many versions in the information field that exclude qualitative changes for the better. A number of researchers explain what is happening by a temporary increase in the so-called"demographic wave".Others claim thatthe entire increase is entirely due to migrants, and we need to talk “not about growth, but about the replacement of one population by another.” Finally, there is an opinion that the increase in the birth rate affected only regions “where there is a high proportion of the population with Muslim and Buddhist religions,” andThe Russian people are still in the deepest demographic depression.The “demographic wave” is already in its low tide, and the birth rate is growing. The simplest statistical analysis shows: in modern Russia there are now 3.1 million (or 9.3%) fewer women of childbearing age than at the turn of the century. That is, the birth rate should be declining compared to 1999-2000, but it is growing. Although there are fewer potential mothers, there are more and more children for each of them. Perhaps the qualitative change was brought about by newcomers with their tradition of having many children? But immigrants come to work, and not to give birth to children; although they contribute to the general treasury of the Russian birth rate, they cannot qualitatively change its indicators.

Conclusion.

According to data provided by the Federal State Statistics Service at the beginning of 2015, in Russia, for every 3,708 boys under the age of four, there are 3,515 girls of the same age. Simple mathematical operations allow you to determine the sex ratio. There are 105 boys for every 100 girls. This is a completely normal sex ratio for peacetime, corresponding to the indicators in most countries (105-107 boys per 100 girls).

Thus, the sign “Many boys are born - for war” has nothing in common with reality. The difference in the number of newborn boys and girls can be influenced by demographic, and not only demographic policy of the state, natural factors, an ongoing or already ended war, and even, according to the results of a number of studies, it can be influenced by environmental pollution with certain harmful substances. Even in peacetime, slightly more boys are born than girls. Sometimes the difference is greater, sometimes less. But it’s not worth predicting future wars in this way - it’s not true.

Bibliography

APPLICATION

The impact of war on the sex composition of births

S.A. Novoselsky

Published by: S.A. Novoselsky. Questions of demographic and sanitary statistics (Selected works) / ed. A.M. Merkova Moscow, "Medgiz", 1958 p. 191-199.

The so-called sex proportion of births, i.e. The number of boys born per 100 girls born changed in Germany over the years indicated as follows:

For every 100 girls born, there were boys born in Germany

The following table compares the numbers for France.

Data for 1915-1919. belong to 77 departments not occupied by the enemy. Data for the years 1920-1923 apply to all of France, including Alsace-Lorraine.

For every 100 girls born, there were boys born in France

The following table compares the numbers for England and Wales. The numbers refer only to live births, as compulsory registration of stillbirths has only been introduced in England since 1927.

Number of births in England and Wales (live births)

In all three countries there was a clear increase in the relative numbers of male births (the so-called increase in sex ratio) in the last year of the war and especially in the immediate post-war years.

For Russia during the war years there is no complete data on the sex composition of births. Below are data for Moscow and Petrograd-Leningrad, and the data refers only to live births, since the numbers of stillbirths for 1917-1922 are extremely incomplete.

Number of births in Moscow (live births)

It would be premature to draw any conclusions for the Second World War, especially since there is almost no data on the sex composition of those born in the warring countries. It is still of some peculiar interest to compare the available data for Leningrad during the siege and in the post-siege period.

2384

1935

2400

2659

1936

2275

2489

1937

3399

3604

1938

2693

2774

1939

2498

2703

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Regional scientific and practical conference “open world” MAN AND SOCIETY (sociology) Who are born more: boys or girls? Author of the work: Gordienko Ekaterina Municipal educational institution secondary school No. 5 in the village of Zhuravskogo, 10th grade. Scientific supervisor: Olga Igorevna Mikhailova, history and social studies teacher, Municipal Educational Institution Secondary School No. 5

There is a popular saying: if more boys are born in a country than girls, this is a harbinger of war. Purpose: To find out whether there is any justification for the statement “Many boys are born - this means war.” Objectives: Consider options for hypotheses related to the causes of uneven sex ratios. Determine the effectiveness of demographic policy at different stages. Find out why the sex ratio changes with age.

The influence of war on the sex composition of born S.A. Novoselsky Published by: S.A. Novoselsky. Questions of demographic and sanitary statistics (Selected works) / ed. A.M. Merkova Moscow, "Medgiz", 1958 p. 191-199. Year Live births Live births and stillbirths 1908 105.4 106.1 1909 105.3 105.9 1910 105.3 105.9 1915 105.5 106.0 1916 106.5 107.1 1917 106.9 107.3 1918 107, 3 107.7 1919 108 108.5 1920 107.2 107.7 1921 107.3 107.8 1922 107 107.5 1923 106.8 107.3 For 100 girls born, boys were born in Germany For 100 girls born, boys were born in France Year Live births Live births and stillbirths 1908 104.8 106.3 1909 104.4 105.6 1910 104.5 105.5 1915 104.6 105.6 1916 104.9 106.0 1917 164.7 105.9 191 8 106.5 107.6 1919 105.9 107.3 1920 106.2 107.2 1921 104.9 106.0 1922 104.9 106.0 1923 105.3 106.3

Year Boys born per 100 girls 1908 103.6 1909 104.1 1910 104.0 1915 104.0 1916 104.9 1917 104.4 1918 104.8 1919 106.0 1920 105.2 1921 105.1 1 922 104.9 1923 104.4 Number of births in England and Wales (live births) Year Boys born per 100 girls 1911 105.1 104.7 1912 104.1 1913 103.8 1914 105.9 1915 104.2 1916 105.6 1917 106.6 106.9 1918 106.6 1919 107.8 1920 104.8 107.4 1921 105.9 1922 107.6 1923 107.3 1924 107.4 1925 105.4 The number of 100 girls born in Moscow (Libra) was born for 100 girls boys 1911 105.9 104.5 1912 103.2 1913 104.7 1914 103.5 1915 104.8 1916 105.0 1917 107.3 106.3 1918 105.0 1919 105.7 1920 108, 1 108.2 1921 108.8 1922 107.7 1923 106.4 106.1 1924 104.8 1925 106.1 Number of births in St. Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad Year live births Live births and stillbirths 1940 104.4 105.0 1941 105.8 106.1 1942 101.3 102.0 1943 105.4 105.4 1944 107.4 107.7 1945 109.1 109.6 For every 100 girls born, boys were born in Leningrad

The reason for the surge in births of boys is a decrease in miscarriages. The absence of men who went to war leads to a decrease in the number of conceptions. The woman’s body rests, the necessary supply of microelements and vitamins is restored, which leads to an easier course of subsequent pregnancy and a decrease in the likelihood of miscarriage. Many male fetuses die in 1-3 months after conception, and in subsequent months the mortality rate of male fetuses is 160-170 per 100 female fetuses. A large number of marriages and the birth of children among young, primiparous women, in whom the likelihood of miscarriages and intrauterine infant death is significantly lower compared to multiparous women.

Natural balance or political factor?

Even the time of year affects the sex ratio Boys Girls

According to statistics, it is also known that: During the first birth, boys are more often born. The younger the parents, the more likely they are to conceive a boy. If pregnancy occurs after an abortion, girls are more often born. Children of the same age, as a rule, are of the same sex.

What do we have? The directions of demographic policy in the Russian Federation are as follows: Maternity benefits. A one-time benefit for women registered in medical institutions in the early stages of pregnancy. A one-time benefit for the birth of a child. Monthly benefit for the period of parental leave until the child reaches 1.5 years of age. Issuance of maternity capital at the birth of a second child.

Thus, the sign “Many boys are born - for war” has nothing in common with reality. IT IS NOT TRUE!

Thank you for your attention!

Everyone knows from school biology textbooks that during conception, the probability of forming a female or male embryo is related as one to one. The sex of the unborn child depends on which type of sperm - containing an X chromosome or a Y chromosome - fertilizes the woman's egg. At the same time, biologists argue that the number of both types of sperm produced in a man’s body is the same, which means that they really have an equal chance of playing a decisive role in determining the sex of the child.

Nevertheless, demographers around the world say:

in fact, more boys are born than girls, and scientists claim that this trend formed around the same time as the emergence of the species Homo sapiens.

However, it cannot be assumed that such a picture is due to the greater mortality of female embryos: medical statistics show that during pregnancy - at least in its later stages - it is male embryos that die more often.

These observations allowed the researchers to conclude that since male embryos are less viable and yet their survival rate at the end of pregnancy still remains higher, it means that at conception they should significantly predominate over female ones. Today, world statistics show that

For every 100 girls, an average of 105 boys are born (with variations in different countries from 104 to 107). It turns out that at conception the inequality should be even greater.

This pattern may not hold true, for example, in countries where people are moving to new fertility patterns and maternal age is gradually increasing. Demographers and doctors note that as a woman ages, the chances of male embryos surviving become even smaller and the average number of girls born increases.

In Asian countries such as China or India, so-called selective abortions—termination of pregnancies based on the sex of the child—are still common, as families strive to have as many sons as possible. American feminist Anne Warren even coined a special term to refer to this phenomenon - “gendercide”. The 2010 census results in China showed that for every 100 girls, 118 boys are born in the country.

According to statistical forecasts, by 2020-2030, every fifth Chinese man will be left without a wife.

This generation of forced bachelors, according to experts, could serve as a potential source of social instability.

But even the latest demographic trends could not answer the question: why, contrary to all the laws of biology, during conception, male embryos are formed more often than female ones? A group of British and American scientists led by Stephen Orzack from the Fresh Pond Research Institute (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA) managed to uncover all the secrets of embryo formation and their further development, and at the same time refute some postulates of demography. An article dedicated to the work of researchers was published in the journal PNAS.

Stephen Orzack's team analyzed information on children conceived in the United States, Canada and several other European countries from 1995 to 2004. Scientists paid attention not only to natural pregnancies (in this case, the sex of the child was determined on the 3-6th day after conception using amniocentesis - analysis of amniotic fluid), but also to pregnancies formed using in vitro fertilization. The researchers also took into account data on miscarriages and induced pregnancies.

In total, scientists collected information on approximately 31 million embryos, which is an absolute record in studies of this kind.

Determining the sex of a child at the earliest stages - during the first week of pregnancy - showed that, in fact, the laws of biology are not violated: the number of male and female embryos at conception actually turned out to be the same. The idea that male embryos are not viable has also been refuted. In fact, boys more often die only during the first one to two weeks of pregnancy and at 28-35 weeks. During the rest of the period, the mortality rate of female embryos is much higher.

Thus, scientists managed to refute two postulates of modern demography at once: about gender disproportion at conception and about the poor health of male embryos.

The researchers do not exclude that the results of their work will force demographers to reconsider some provisions of their science.

Despite the fact that researchers were able to prove the effectiveness of the laws of biology, one should not think that future parents cannot in any way increase the likelihood of conceiving a boy or girl. Thus, obstetrician-gynecologist of the highest qualification category Georgy Mestergazi notes that the activity of sperm depends on whether they are “male” or “female”. “Female” X sperm can be compared to long-distance runners: they are larger, more durable, move slower and can travel through the fallopian tubes for a fairly long period of time, and then “wait” for ovulation for about 72 hours.

But Y-sperm are more like sprinters who move quickly and over short distances: they have a better chance of fertilizing an egg if they are close to it. It turns out that the likelihood of conceiving a son or daughter may change depending on where the ejaculation occurred: near the cervix or vagina. Moreover, “male” and “female” sperm feel differently in different environments: the former favors an alkaline environment, the latter an acidic one.

Many people are interested in how many people there are in Russia - children, men and women, old people? It should be immediately noted that the population of the largest territory in the world has not increased, but the statistics for 2019 (updated) for Russians are encouraging. According to constantly updated UN statistics, as of April 15, 2019, at 20:03, 146,527,317 people live in Russia, of which 78,659,715 are women (53.7% of the total population) and 67,867,602 are men (46.3% of the total population). ). There are almost 11 million more women than men in the country, and this disproportion is widened sharply by older ages, where men die significantly earlier than women. The picture shows that in 2019 the population on this date is growing (an increase of 17,253 people), despite a significant excess of mortality (583,222 people) over the birth rate (534,849 people). This growth is due to population migration to Russia. Which countries and nationalities are migrants is a separate issue and is not discussed in this material. It is convenient to compare the demographic indicators of the Russian Federation with data from 1.5-2 years ago and earlier. Data on children, men and women for 2017 are as follows: (then for comparison about 2013, intermediate for ( 2015 -2016 - at the end of the article).

Population and sex ratio in Russia

At the beginning of July 2017, the population of Russia (RF) was estimated at 142,257,519 people of about 200 nationalities, which is more than 200 thousand less than four years earlier (international data with possible confusion about the population of Crimea).

In the Russian Federation, more boys are born, there are even more of them than females under 25 years of age, but then the sex ratio changes towards the predominance of women. The ratio of men and women in Russia among ages in July 2017 looks like this:

- coefficient 1.06 under the age of 14 years (boys 12,509,563 / girls 11,843,254) - only 17.2 percent of the population (the proportion to the population has improved when compared with what it was a few years ago);

The sex ratio at the age of 15-24 years is 1.05, in total in this age category 9.46% of the entire population of the Russian Federation, where there are 6,881,880 men, 6,572,191 women;

- there are already fewer men in the next age category, where the ratio of men to women in Russia in mid-2017 becomes 0.96; in total, such people of both sexes accounted for 44.71% of the population of Russia (male 31,220,990 and female - 32,375,489 people);

— let us note that in the age range of nine years, 9.46% of young people aged 15-24 live, and more than 14.44% live in those aged 55-64 (the gap is very large in favor of older people). Older men aged 55-64 years are 8,849,707 people, and the gap with the number of women becomes very significant; 11,693,131 people lived at this age;

— we just have to find out how many men are left after 64 years. Few, and very few: 6,352,557 people. At the age of 64 years and above, in 2017 there were more than twice as many women as men - 13,958,757. Accordingly, this is reflected in the average age, for men it is only 36.6, for women it is much higher - 42 ,5 years.

The population of Russia was maintained then mainly due to migration (rate 1.7 per 1000 population), since in 2017 the birth rate per 1000 inhabitants was 11 babies, and the death rate was 13.5.

Despite the fact that 72.4% of people in Russia live in cities, the proportion of residents in them decreased slightly (by 0.15%), in Moscow there are 12.166 million people (increased by about 1.5 million people over 2-2 years). 3 years, St. Petersburg - 4.993 million (increased by the number of the regional center), Novosibirsk - 1.497 million, Yekaterinburg - 1.379 million, Nizhny Novgorod - 1.212 million, Samara - 1.164 million (data as of the beginning of 2016).

Women began having children on average at 24.6 years of age. The infant mortality rate is high - 6.8 deaths per 1000 (higher for boys), and the mothers themselves could not be saved in 25 cases per 100 thousand births.

So why does Nature no longer need a man after years? Apparently scientists have found the answer to this question. Nature, to increase the survival rate of descendants due to stronger immunity and the introduction of new genes into them (creating higher genetic diversity). After leaving reproductive age, it seems that the need for men in this regard decreases.

Then let’s compare the number and ratio of men and women in Russia a little earlier:

As of June 2013, there were 142,500,482 people in Russia (data for 2015-2016 - at the end of the article). But the ratio of men to women depends markedly on age. The younger the age range, the more men there are, and vice versa (compare - above). The total number of children aged 0 to 14 years is 16% of the total population. Of all the children, 11,740,877 were boys and 11,119,318 were girls, giving a sex ratio of 1.06.

11.5% of the population lived between the ages of 15-24, with 8,401,971 males and 8,045,363 females, a ratio of 1.04.
For the age range of 25-54 years (45.9% of the population) - men 31,945,797, women 33,417,073 people, the ratio is 0.95.

Women are pensioners, and men are working and at retirement age in the range of 55-64 years: 13.5% (men 8,177,300, women 11,009,712 people, ratio 0.74).

Well, and finally people over 65 years of age (13.1%). Yes, these are mostly women: men 5,687,515, women 12,955,556, sex ratio 0.44, something does not allow men to live long (data are all for 2013). (Compare, for example,) in Ukraine.

Accordingly, the average age in the country is 38.8 years, for men it is 35.8 years, for women it is 41.8 years.

In total, there were 32,981 thousand old-age pensioners in the Russian Federation (at the end of 2011), in addition to 2,588 thousand due to disability, and 1,401 thousand due to the loss of a breadwinner.

Fertility: 12.11, mortality -13.97; migration - 1.67 (all per 1000 population).

Urban population - 73%, where they live in Moscow - 10,523,000; St. Petersburg - 4,575,000, 1,397,000 in Novosibirsk; Yekaterinburg - 1,344,000; Nizhny Novgorod - 1,267,000 (2009).

But all this is now. What happened a hundred years ago? It was simply amazing what was observed - not at all like it is now.

But let's see what it all looked like almost two years later. ( Next, go to the next page, numbered below)

Bookmark this article to return to it again by clicking the buttons Ctrl+D . You can subscribe to notifications about the publication of new articles through the “Subscribe to this site” form in the side column of the page. If anything is unclear, then read.

Olga Sobolevskaya, RIA Novosti columnist.

Is Russia facing a sharp imbalance of newborn boys and girls, and in the future - a shortage of women? China and India have long faced this phenomenon. And now a clear predominance of boys is observed in Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Serbia and Bosnia, reports the British The Telegraph, citing research by demographers. Experts believe that the growing number of bachelors is a serious problem, but in Russia another problem is much more serious - small families.

Selective killing of girls

“The phenomena described by The Telegraph have existed for a long time,” says Igor Beloborodov, director of the Institute of Demographic Research.

In China, 100 girls are born for every 120 boys; in India, the ratio is 112 to 100. This is largely the result of selective abortions: unwanted girls are “weeded out” after ultrasound examinations, Beloborodov explains. “The preference given to boys under the one-child policy in China is a feature of patriarchal cultures,” explains Igor Beloborodov.

As a result, “in China, 40 million men of working age no longer have wives, and this is a huge number,” the demographer emphasizes.

In India, he said, over the past 20 years, 20 million girls have been aborted. The phenomenon of gendercide, by analogy with genocide, has emerged - murder based on gender. In some areas of India, says Igor Beloborodov, there is even “infanticide - the murder of newborn girls.”

As a result, polygamy appears in India in the form of polyandry, when a woman lives with her husband and at the same time cohabits with his single brothers, the expert says. Another option is when young girls are simply kidnapped for marriage.

“Men can go to other countries in search of brides,” adds Alexey Komov, head of the representative office in Russia and the CIS of the World Congress of Families (WCF), Ambassador of the WCC to the UN. “The immigration of Chinese to Russia - Siberia and the Far East - is partly dictated by the search for a mate,” says Vera Abramenkova, head of the laboratory at the Institute of Psychological and Pedagogical Problems of Childhood of the Russian Academy of Education, professor at the Moscow State University of Psychology and Education.

The consequences of gender imbalance in psychology are obvious. “The standards of male and female behavior are being destroyed faster,” says Vera Abramenkova.

“There is a feminization of the masculine and a masculinization of the feminine. The lines between the sexes are being blurred, women increasingly prefer the male image, and for men, on the contrary, it is increasingly difficult to maintain masculinity, social and psychological maturity in the current conditions,” says the psychologist. This phenomenon is observed in many countries, including Russia.

There are always more boys born: hypotheses and reality

“Teachers in Russian kindergartens and schools have noted the preponderance of boys over girls over the past 2-3 years,” says Marina Egorova, dean of the faculty of educational psychology at the Moscow City Psychological and Pedagogical University. “When we do gender studies in schools, we often have to pick up girls; there are always more boys,” says the expert.

As of January 1 last year, there were 899 thousand boys under one year old in Russia and 851 thousand girls of the same age, according to Rosstat.

“We do not notice any fundamental changes in the ratio of boys and girls,” notes Sergei Zakharov, deputy director of the Institute of Demography at the National Research University Higher School of Economics. There are always more boys born than girls, he emphasizes. The ratio is approximately 105-106 to 100. The proportion of newborn boys and girls “remains at this level in Russia.”

Regarding the natural imbalance of newborn boys and girls, there is a famous hypothesis of biologist, chemist and physicist Vigen Geodakyan, author of the work “Evolutionary Theory of Sex,” says Vera Abramenkova, head of the laboratory of the Institute of Psychological and Pedagogical Problems of Childhood of the Russian Academy of Education. RIA Novosti's interlocutor interprets the essence of this hypothesis as follows: “Men are the compass of evolution and variability.”

Geodakyan’s eternal imbalance of boys and girls is explained by the fact that “men in the evolutionary process are responsible for variability, and women are responsible for constancy,” Sergei Zakharov explains the theory. More boys are born "because they have to move around to find the best [survival] strategies," he explains.

The thing to worry about is not the imbalance between boys and girls, but the “huge gap between male and female mortality and early orphanhood,” says the demographer. Men in Russia die earlier. The All-Russian Population Census recorded the fact: there are 10.5 million more women (there are almost 143 million Russians in total).

"Men expend more energy to survive and engage in more risky behavior," says the demographer.

Risky behavior includes alcoholism, drug addiction, road accidents, and various types of injuries.

In Russia, “both boys and girls are valued”

For Russia, unlike Georgia or Armenia, “gender preference [for children]” is not yet typical, says Sergei Zakharov.

Selective abortions have already appeared in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, notes Igor Beloborodov. For every 120 boys, 100 girls are born, says the demographer.

“In Russia, in conditions of widespread small families - family orientation towards the birth of one baby, the gender of the child often does not matter much,” says Igor Beloborodov. “One of the motives for the birth of a second child is preference given to a boy or a girl.”

“In Russia, men often wanted a daughter to be born,” says Vera Abramenkova.

“We tried to have a girl four times,” says my friend, Elena Smirnova, mother of four boys. “But when we found out that a boy would be born, we didn’t even think about abortion.”

“We had a son first, but we also wanted a girl,” says the mother of two boys and two girls, Natalya Portnova. “The second son was born. We decided to try again with a girl.” Natalya's third daughter was born. Then the family decided “to have another daughter for good measure,” notes RIA’s interlocutor.

In general, both boys and girls are “rated” in Russia, but in certain regions, for example, in the North Caucasus - in Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria - selective abortions are gradually appearing, says Igor Beloborodov. “The birth rate is still high in the villages, but in the cities such family planning technologies are already spreading, when after an ultrasound, if the parents are not satisfied with the sex of the child, they have an abortion,” says the agency’s interlocutor.

“The dropout of girls as a phenomenon is one way or another passing to Europe,” concludes Igor Beloborodov.

In Europe, the question of whether to ban gender determination by ultrasound is being seriously debated, adds Alexey Komov. - There are often cases when the sex of the child is not the one needed. And sometimes there are mistakes when determining gender using ultrasound.”

Having few children and childlessness is worse

With all the gender changes, there is an even more alarming trend - the reluctance to have children at all, says Igor Beloborodov, director of the Institute of Demographic Research. “Mass childlessness is observed in different parts of the world: in Germany, Shanghai, Hong Kong.” In Europe, for example, 20 percent of young women are childless. Some of them are convinced child-free, opponents of childbearing, some are simply typical representatives of the “consumer society who are carried away by their careers,” and some are gay, says the demographer.

“Judging by the facts, child-free does not have a strong impact on the birth rate,” says Sergei Zakharov, deputy director of the Institute of Demography at the National Research University Higher School of Economics. “A more important object for [Russian] public policy is for the birth rate to rise from the current 1.6 to at least 2.1 ".

Such a ratio would mean that the average woman under the age of 50 would have more than two births. This ensures the so-called natural reproduction of the population - maintaining its numbers.

“There are no catastrophic changes in the birth rate,” notes the deputy director of the HSE Institute of Demography. The decline in the birth rate since the middle of the century has not been very significant: in the 1940s-1950s this rate was 1.8, in the 1980s it settled at 1.6 and has remained approximately the same, emphasizes Sergei Zakharov.

40% of women have two births, says the deputy director of the HSE Institute of Demography. A recent survey conducted this year by the Institute of Demography - “Parents and Children, Men and Women in the Family and Society” - showed that many families are focused on having two children, the expert notes.

It is necessary to work with the reproductive stereotypes of young people - with ideas about the family and the number of children in it, says Alexey Komov. Now the main educator of the average European teenager is the media, including television and Internet publications, the expert says. And in the media, the assessment of the family is often negative.

The state encourages “those people who grew up with few children” to have two or more children, says Sergei Zakharov. “They have already accepted that motivation. Already in adolescence, a person has ideas about what a family should be like,” he explains.

It is difficult to change reproductive stereotypes, “if it was the result of long-term historical changes,” emphasizes Sergei Zakharov.

“Material and financial assistance, agitation, creating a friendly attitude in society towards families with two children - this whole set of measures can increase the birth rate by 0.1 - 0.2. And this is already significant,” concludes the RIA Novosti interlocutor.

Boys are born more often than girls. Image source: gentside.com

In reality, the probabilities are not the same, since for every hundred newborn girls, one hundred and six boys are born. In some states (mainly in the countries of Asia and the East), due to human intervention, due to local traditions and customs, this difference is even greater, but this does not shed light on the presence of a constant ratio of the birth rate of boys and girls in other parts of the Earth. This leads to the fact that every year 10,000,000 more boys are born on the planet than girls.

What mechanisms regulate the ratio of boys and girls born?

This proportion of birth rates is determined by nature itself. In fact, the ratio is even more in favor of boys than official statistics show. So, even when conceiving children, there are one hundred and fifty male zygotes for every one hundred female zygotes. The reason for this biological selectivity is quite tragic - male embryos, more often than female ones, die in the womb or are born dead. And boys who were successfully born are susceptible to a greater number of fatal diseases, risk-related accidents and more often die a violent death than girls.

The men are the accidental boys who survived. Image source:imgur.com

By the time children grow up and reach puberty, the ratio of boys to girls is almost equal.
However, the chances of having a boy are also determined by the quality of life of the mother during her pregnancy. For example, during the famine in the 1960s in China, boys began to be born much less frequently, and this continued until this period passed.
People with high incomes and in wealthy families are more likely to have sons. Nature arranges it in such a way that the female body reduces the likelihood of a boy surviving in the womb during periods of crisis and increases it during good periods. Similar mechanisms are characteristic of other mammals. In the absence of resources or their small quantity, females begin to give birth to males less often than before; when the amount of resources becomes sufficient, the birth rate of males increases.

Why does nature regulate the number of children born depending on gender?

Scientists have only one explanation for this and it is directly related to sex. From a biological point of view, the survival of a population depends on the ability to reproduce and pass on its genes to those who will someday be able to pass them on. Females are almost guaranteed to leave offspring, since males are almost always ready to mate, regardless of what period the population is going through, whether there is famine or not.

Image source: agefotostock.com

Males, on the contrary, need to compete and compete with each other all the time in order to mate with a female. For example, a male who is not hungry and eats well has more opportunities to mate with a large number of females, while a male who is weakened due to hunger, as a rule, does not mate at all. In this regard, the birth of boys is associated with great risks, since the likelihood of their death is higher at any period of life. Additionally, even if they survive, males may not achieve mating to leave their offspring.

However, during periods of population prosperity, the ability of the male sex to conceive a large number of offspring more than justifies these biological risks.

Do you think there are any other explanations for the fact that more boys are born than girls? Share your opinion in the comments.

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