Sex Ratios and Sex Sequences of Births in India

Abstract

101,220 births in urban areas and 147,331 in rural areas in India, recorded by interview from a 10% sample of households in 3888 villages and 2357 urban blocks, have been analysed. The overall sex ratio was similar to that found in Europe; the only obvious effect of birth order was an apparent high masculinity of first births in both urban and rural areas (probably artifactual); the distribution of the sexes in families in both areas differed somewhat from the binomial expectation; and there was no association between the sexes of pairs of children from adjacent births, but some in the case of pairs separated by one other birth in urban areas or by two other births in rural areas.