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Abstract
The male/female sex ratio (SR) and its age-specific patterns vary considerably across time and place. The SR generally begins male-biased at birth and becomes female-biased later in life, but this relationship should respond to historical trends and events. Temporal trends in SRs remain largely unstudied and formal demographic relationships are not well defined. We (1) define SRs in a life table framework, (2) estimate the age at which the number of males and females achieves parity—the sex ratio crossover (SRX)—using basic life table methods, and (3) explore historical and international patterns in these trends. Using publicly-available data from the Human Mortality Database, we construct SR and SRX measures from period and cohort life tables. Analyses explore temporal patterns for seven countries in different global regions since 1850. Overall temporal trends show the SRX advancing to older ages. The SRX also appears to respond to historical events such as wars and epidemics. The measure is simple to construct from life table data, and provides additional insight into the historical context of gender dynamics.
Acknowledgments
This work arose out of patterns observed during preparation of the 2017 Utah State and County Population Projections. The authors extend particular thanks to Pamela S. Perlich. Special acknowledgement goes to comments provided by members of the University of Utah Demography Mentee group. Previous versions of this paper were presented at the 2018 annual conferences of the Population Association of America, and the American Sociological Association, and the authors are grateful for feedback from conference participants. They are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their useful suggestions, and the Human Mortality Database and their data contributors.