The myth that there are more women than men cannot be supported by data. Our research shows that men are more in number!
CLAIM: A viral WhatsApp post, crediting the United Nations Demography Report claims that there are more women to men on earth
CONCLUSION: FALSE
EVIDENCE:
All the reports and statistics we reviewed – UN, WorldBank, NBS – lead
to one conclusion: there are more men than women in the world!
FULL TEXT:
A hilarious post was recently circulated on WhatsApp and it was credited to the United Nations Demography Report.
The report shows that there are 7.8 billion people on earth; out of this number, 5.6 billion are women, while 2.2 billion are men. Therefore, the post advised women to be “careful in showing attitudes to any man…”.
To further frighten women, the post says that out of the 2.2 billion male population, one billion are married already; 130,000 are in prison; 70,000 are mentally ill. That means that the total number of men available for marriage or relationship is just one billion.
The author of the claim wasn’t done yet. Out of this remaining one billion males, he/she says that “50%
are jobless; 3% are gay; 5% are catholic priests; 10% are your
relatives and 35% are above 66 years old. So ladies, both the married
and single, you have to rethink before treating any man like trash. For
details visit UN Demography Report.”
According
to the annual population growth estimate from the United Nations (UN),
in 2018, the world’s population grew at a rate of 1.12%. Every five
years since the 1970s, the growth rate has continued to fall. The
world’s population is expected to continue to grow but at a much slower
pace. By 2030, the population is expected to exceed eight billion, which
will be impacted significantly by nine specific countries: The
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria,
Pakistan, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, and the United States
of America.
According to the same 1st quarter Demography Report 2019 referred to by the writer, as of February 2019, the total population of the world exceeds 7.71 billion people.
In 2017, there are 102 men for every 100 women, thus in a group of 1000 people selected at random from the world population, 504 would be male and 496 would be female on average.
According to the World Health Organisation Sex ratio,
in the human species, the ratio between males and females at birth is
slightly biased towards the male sex. The natural “sex ratio” at birth
is often considered to be around 105. This means that at birth on
average, there are 105 males for every 100 females.
Nature
provides that the number of newborn males slightly outnumber newborn
females because as they grow up, men are at a higher risk of dying than
women, not only due to sex differentials in natural death rates, but
also due to higher risk from external causes (accidents, injuries,
violence, war causalities).
As for Nigeria, the UN population’s latest available census and estimates (2016-2017), last updated on 7th February 2019 states that as of 21st March 2006, Nigeria’s total population in millions was 140,431,790.
The
population of male was about seventy-one million (71,345,488) and female
was about sixty-nine million (69,086,302); the same trend can be seen
in other countries like the USA for instance. As at 1st April 2010, male
population was over one hundred and fifty-one million (151,781,326)
while the female population was over one hundred and fifty-six million
(156,964,212) and in China as of 1st November 2010, the population of
male was six hundred and eighty-six million plus (686,852,572) while
that of the female was six hundred and fifty-two million plus
(652,872,280).
The Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, in its November 2016 Statistical Report on Women and Men in Nigeria,
projected Nigeria’s population at 183 million. Interestingly, it put
women’s population at 49.5% and men at 50.5%. Sex ratio dropped from 103
men in 2006 t0 102 men per 100 women in 2015.
All these reports and statistics lead to one conclusion: there are more men than women in the world.
In countries like Latvia, Lithuania, Armenia, Belarus, Russia, Ukraine and Estonia, there are more women than men.
In
trying to justify the claim, the post says that a huge number of men are
married, in prison, mentally ill, jobless, gay, catholic priests etc.
But the
same argument can equally be made for women. A large number of women are
married, some are equally in prison, mentally ill and a growing number
are lesbians.
OUR CONCLUSION:
The myth that there are more women than men cannot be supported by data. Our research shows that men are more in number!
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