The Editor Speaks: Where the boys are outnumbered by the girls
“In anthropology and demography, the human sex ratio is the ratio of males to females in a population. More data are available for humans than for any other species, and the human sex ratio is more studied than that of any other species, but interpreting these statistics can be difficult.
“Like most sexual species, the sex ratio in humans is approximately 1:1. Due to higher female fetal mortality, the sex ratio at birth worldwide is commonly thought to be 107 boys to 100 girls,[3] although this value is subject to debate in the scientific community. The sex ratio for the entire world population is 101 males to 100 females. Depending upon which definition is used, between 0.1% and 1.7% of live births are intersex.”
However….. “In most populations, adult males tend to have higher death rates than adult females of the same age (even after allowing for causes specific to females such as death in childbirth), both due to natural causes such as heart attacks and strokes, which account for by far the majority of deaths and also to violent causes, such as homicide and warfare (for example, in the United States as of 2006, an adult non-elderly male is 3 to 6 times more likely to become a victim of a homicide and 2.5 to 3.5 times more likely to die in an accident than a female of the same age)”.
“Even in the absence of sex selection practices, a range of “normal” sex ratios at birth of between 103 and 108 boys per 100 girls has been observed in different economically developed countries,[18] and among different ethnic and racial groups within a given country.”
So, boys outnumber the girls, but ……..
…….not in the Cayman Islands.
According to the latest Compendium of Statistics released by the Cayman Islands Economics and Statistics Office, horrors upon horrors, women make up more than 52% of our population!
There are 4% more girls than us boys.
It gets even worse as women last longer than men.
At the end of 2016 our population has reached the highest number ever – 61,361 persons. That means there are 31,907 women and almost ¾ of another woman. There are 2,454 more women hovering around these islands than men.
Men, we are in the minority.
And the largest age group is between 35 and 44 years old.
Life expectancy for babies born in the Cayman Islands today is over 82 years. So the ratio of girls to boys is going to increase.
What can we do?
Do we want to do anything?
Boy oh boy. We have a bigger choice. Next time we have an argument with our wife we can say, “Be careful, honey pie, there are another 2,454 women waiting outside this door just for me.”
Plus that ¾ of one.
When I lived in Nottingham in the sixties the fair sex allegedly outnumbered the men 5: 1. It was frightening. I left in 1968 for the sunny shores of Montego Bay but being rather shy found Cayman more to my likening. It has been a long journey but one I have truly enjoyed.
I can live with the current ratio.
Dear Chris
I have always known how very, very shy you are…….. Especially when being outnumbered by the fair sex.