The infographic above summarizes the data on sex ratio from The World Factbook 2020. The ratio shows the number of males for every female.
Observation #1 – By Age
At an overall global level, the gender ratio is 1.04, which is decently balanced with the number of males slightly more than that of females. Looking into the data by age group, the distribution is not even. From the birth to the age of 54, the ratio remains somewhere around 1.04 to 1.05. However, in the age group of 55 to 64, the ratio becomes 1.02, and finally over 65, it becomes 0.86. This means that there are more females in higher age groups than males. This could be attributed to the longer life expectancy of females.
Observation #2 – By Nation
Some countries have the total population with extremely imbalanced gender ratio. Qatar has the most male-dominant population with a ratio of 3.39, followed by UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. On the other hand, Djibouti has the most female-dominant population with a ratio of 0.83, followed by Lithuania, Ukraine, Latvia, and Russia.
These countries, however, have balanced gender ratios of 1.02 – 1.07 at birth. Typically, the ratios spike up at certain age groups, i.e., age groups of 25 – 54 and 55 – 65, for the Middle Eastern countries mentioned above. This could be the result of the workforce immigrants flowing into the region.
Observation #3 – Imbalance at Birth
It is notable that most of the countries in the list have the balanced sex ratio at birth. Liechtenstein has the most male-dominant population at birth with a gender ratio of 1.26, followed by China and India with a gender ratio of 1.11.
