Quiz: Countries with imbalanced sex ratios

[jajdude]

Interesting Quiz:

http://www.sporcle.com/games/slicingbike/sexratio

[OrphanPip]

I got 13 from just randomly typing in the name of countries.

[jajdude]

yeah, those quizzes can be like that. I suppose the results are not too surprising? Not sure what accounts for dominance of females in numerous countries, but can sort of see why the male dominant ones are where they are.

[papayahed]

huh. you'd think Vatican City would be male dominant.

[Ecurb]

I think the female dominant countries result from men emigrating in search of jobs. (I'm not sure why more women don't emigrate.)

[JuniperWoolf]

Pretty sure we do. Aren't hispanic housekeepers a cliche in the United States?

[jajdude]

I wonder where the data comes from as it seems different sources can have different data.

Here's a site that list all the countries (estimated, 2008 or 2009):

http://www.geohive.com/earth/pop_gender.aspx

It shows Qatar at a ratio of over 300 males per 100 females!

[OrphanPip]

Qatar is pretty easy to explain, three quarters of the emirate's population are foreign workers from the petroleum industry.

Others like the Vatican are easy to explain too, when you have countries with very small populations, you would expect greater fluctuations in sex ratio. In the Vatican a difference of a hundred nuns would make a big difference on the ratio.

Some, like in Eastern Europe, likely have higher female populations because of emigration. Men are more likely to emigrate to secure higher paying jobs and send the money back to spouses/children. It is also more expensive to emigrate as a family unit, and so it is often unfeasible for the entire family to relocate at once.

Other causes of sex ratio imbalances can be war, which tends to disproportionately lower male populations.

Most of these countries have small populations where changes in demographic through immigration can drastically alter sex ratios.