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Sex Ratio at Birth

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International Encyclopedia of Statistical Science

Sex Ratio in National Birth Registers

The sex ratio at birth, also called the secondary sex ratio, and here denoted SR, is usually defined as the number of males per 100 females. Among newborns there is almost always a slight excess of boys. Consequently, the SR is greater than 100, mainly around 106.

John Graunt (1620–1674) was the first person to compile data showing an excess of male births to female births and to note spatial and temporal variation in the SR. John Arbuthnot (1667–1735) demonstrated that the excess of males was statistically significant and asserted that the SR is uniform over time and space (Campbell 2001). Referring to christenings in London in the 82 years up to 1710, Arbuthnot suggested that the regularity in the SR and the dominance of males over females could not be attributed to chance and must be an indication of divine providence. Nicholas Bernoulli’s (1695–1726) counter-argument was that Arbuthnot’s model was too restrictive. Instead of a fair coin model,...

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References and Further Reading

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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Fellman, J. (2011). Sex Ratio at Birth. In: Lovric, M. (eds) International Encyclopedia of Statistical Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04898-2_513

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