As we all know, the national population census is the most authoritative population survey activity in China, which is conducted every ten years. The most recent one is the seventh national population census in 2020. The data it provides is the most authoritative and accurate, which is far more convincing than the statements of “I think” and “I see”.

When I was looking up the data of the Seventh National Population Census that year, I saw a set of data, which is that the sex ratio of the birth population that year was 111.3, that is, for every 100 girls born, there were 111.3 boys born, which is the national average data.

At that time, I thought of a question. The situation varies greatly among different provinces in China. Some provinces have a very serious phenomenon of favoring sons over daughters, such as the most famous provinces of Jiangxi, Guangdong, and Fujian. Their data is definitely higher than the mean, while some provinces do not care much about whether they are male or female, such as the three northeastern provinces. Their data is definitely lower than the mean. In that case, do you have detailed data for each province?

Curious, I found a national gender ratio table made by Zhigu Trends on the Internet. They claimed that the data source was the 2020 Chinese census, that is, the seven census data. If their data is true, it can give us a good reference.

According to their statistics, the gender imbalance in China is indeed very serious now, especially since 2019, the data has gradually become magical.

For example, in Hubei Province, where the first child sex ratio is only 115, the sex ratio skyrockets to an astonishing 177.42 when giving birth to a third child. This means that for every 100 girls born to a third child, there are 177 boys born.

What surprised me even more was that Shanghai, known as the most open-minded and internationally connected city in China, had a sex ratio of 216.67 for its fourth child. This means that for every 100 girls born to a fourth child, 216 boys are born, and the number of male babies doubles, which is terrifying.

Of course, what really surprised me was that I used to think that rural areas would be more willing to have boys because rural people have more traditional thinking. However, the data from the Seventh National Population Census told me that my perception was wrong. According to big data, the sex ratio of newborns in urban areas is 112.15, while in rural areas it is 111.90, which means that in fact, cities are more willing to have boys than rural areas.

And there is also an unexpected conclusion, which is that studying cannot completely reverse the concept of valuing sons over daughters. Many highly educated women (with a bachelor’s degree or above), although they often claim gender equality and fight for women’s rights, still have some people who directly express that they only want to have sons when giving birth.

This is not my personal opinion, nor is it a social survey conducted by a certain fake organization. It is a professional paper published in JMF journal. I know many people may say that JMF journal is also a fake journal, but in fact, JMF journal is the top international journal in the field of family research, and the world’s top journal in this field. Many of the research data you see about gender and family now come from above.

So, there is no need to doubt the authority.

In order to write the most professional analysis, they selected thousands of urban women born after 1978 with higher education in China for a survey. In the end, they were surprised to find that even if women have higher levels of education and deeply rooted equal rights ideas, there are still some who insist on having only sons.

Of course, education also has an impact on fertility, that is, the higher the level of education, the higher the probability of women not having children. Many DINKs are indeed highly educated women, but as long as they want to have children, they inevitably still have a preference for sons over daughters.

For example, when asked why they insist on having a son, these women say this.

A 26 year old woman expressed that she is a staunch supporter of gender equality. She believes that men and women should be equal, and there should be no chauvinism or seeking benefits under the guise of feminism. However, if she only has one child, she will definitely only have a son. The reason is also very simple, because as a woman, she knows that women’s lives are full of hardships.

Another 28 year old married woman expressed that she supports gender equality and does not discriminate against women, but she still prefers to have a son because she believes that it is not so important for a boy to be good-looking, but if a girl is fat and ugly, her life will be a tragedy. She does not want her child to experience these pains.

Another woman in her 30s expressed that she also hopes to have a son because a son can stay with her parents forever, while a daughter will leave her original family once she gets married, and she does not want to experience the pain of separation.

Of course, due to the large number of interviewees, I cannot restate all of their viewpoints. In short, I spent a lot of time reading through their viewpoints and can roughly summarize the four main reasons why they are more willing to have a son:

Firstly, I believe that women are not easy.

Secondly, it is believed that society has lower expectations for boys. (For example, appearance and beauty)

Thirdly, it is believed that when a girl gets married, she belongs to someone else’s family.

Fourthly, there is a clear discrimination against women in society. (For example, in the workplace)

As mothers of children, they prefer to have a son because they want their child’s future life to be easier.

After watching their interviews, on the one hand, I think it is completely understandable, as it is human nature. Everyone hopes their children will have a better life in the future. However, on the other hand, I still feel very sad because if we connect them to women in the new era who have received higher education and have deeply rooted equal rights ideas, they all have the idea of valuing sons over daughters. How can the gender ratio in China be reversed?

Before, I saw many people online saying that boys in kindergarten are the best, but I still didn’t believe it because I thought that most children born today have parents born in the 1980s and 1990s who have received higher education and shouldn’t have a preference for boys over girls. But later, I looked online and found that this phenomenon is quite common.

Some netizens said that when they sent their children to kindergarten, they found that there were 14 boys in the class, only 4 girls. Some parents also went to the kindergarten to pick up their children and found that almost all the people eating at the table were boys.

Why did this phenomenon occur? I calmed down and thought about this question, and later I gradually came to understand. On the one hand, it is because these children who are now attending kindergarten are already very special. Where is the uniqueness? The answer is the time of birth.

Because it’s 2024 now, most of the children in kindergarten are between 3-6 years old, born between 2018 and 2021. So what happened around this time frame?

The answer is that the second child policy will be fully implemented in 2016, and the third child policy will be fully implemented in 2021.

So nowadays, many children in kindergartens come from families with multiple children. Based on our understanding of China’s national conditions, who are more motivated to have a second or third child? The answer is that the first child is from a daughter’s family.

In the past, due to family planning, there was no choice but to have one daughter. Now that national policies have been relaxed, many people are desperately seeking male offspring to fulfill their obsession.

So the gender imbalance in kindergartens may seem difficult to understand, but it is actually an inevitable result, because the basic situation in China is aging and low birth rate, and the key to low birth rate is that there are too few people willing to have their first child. Therefore, a large part of the families that support the fertility rate are actually willing to have multiple children.

Who would prefer to have a second or third child? The answer is people who have a preference for sons over daughters, because those who do not have a preference for sons over daughters end up having their first child regardless of gender.

So this leads to the fact that in the end, those who desperately give birth are those who prioritize sons over daughters, resulting in a serious gender imbalance in third births across the country, which is an inevitable outcome.

How should we handle this situation? I personally believe that if we cannot stop it, then we can only let nature take its course, because nature will definitely take action. Once the gender imbalance reaches a certain level, nature will activate the correction mechanism.

For example, in kindergarten, there were more men than women, but now there are more women than men in universities. According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, after entering the 1920s, the number of female students in universities across the country surpassed male students. Whether it is vocational, undergraduate or graduate students, the number of female students is significantly higher than that of male students.

Especially in universities with a bachelor’s degree or above and a 211 degree or below, the number of female students is particularly high.

What impact will this have? The answer is that on one hand, a large number of female college students cannot find suitable partners because there are already fewer male students with similar academic backgrounds.

On the other hand, a large number of low educated men may not be able to find a partner because the additional educated women do not look up to them.

This will result in a mismatch of resources and a large number of singles.

What impact will having too many bachelors have? According to research by domestic and foreign demographers, once there are too many older single men, it will affect social order. For every 0.01% increase in gender ratio, violence and property crimes will increase by 3%.

And the more severe the gender imbalance, the more severe the gender opposition will be, because the competition in marriage and love is too fierce, and there will be many outrageous phenomena, such as sky high dowries, which are actually products of gender imbalance.

The reason why Jiangxi has the highest dowry in the country is because Jiangxi has the highest gender ratio in the country. Everyone is working hard to have a son, and it is not easy to marry a wife in the end. Therefore, we can only increase the dowry crazily. If you give 100000, I will give 150000, and then gradually increase it to an unimaginable number.

This is the fundamental reason why high dowries are difficult to eradicate.

In short, if humans deliberately create gender imbalance, nature will definitely take action to balance it. As for how to balance it? Those who are familiar with history know that there are many methods.