Surprising Sex Ratios in the South Caucasus: Son Preferences in the Former Soviet States of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia

Dennis J. Donahue, U.S. Census Bureau
Jennifer L Fortado, U.S. Census Bureau

Extremely high sex ratios at birth are generally expected to occur only in populations suffering severe poulation shocks or in countries with strict population controls. Thus, the revelation that Azerbaijan is reporting 1.12 male births for every female birth, and both Georgia and Armenia have ratios above 1.18, is not only surprising, but gives renewed questions about the quality of data coming out of former Soviet states ? states with little history of ?hild gender preferences, and no evidence of such preferences during the period of greater economic and social turmoil during the early 1990s. This project examines population statistics from the U.N. and from each country?s national statistical agency to assess the extent to which this trend can be attributed to misreporting or underreporting of births. These cohort analyses are supplemented with multivariate analysis of traditional predictors of gender preferences using the Armenian Demographic and Health Survey (2000).