China's Population by Age and Sex
from the 1987 Census

Factors in the disproportionate ratio of male/female

A number of factors cause the disproportionate number of males to females. In rural areas the males are much more valuable than females. The reason is that when the young people get married the new couple goes to the house of the male and that family gains the female to work while the house with the female loses the one worker that they had. Also the old couple with the female has no one to help them in their old age. A province-by-province survey of sex ratios at birth, applying to the period of January 1, 1986 to June 20, 1987 was carried out by the State Statistical Bureau. It found that 110.51 male babies were born for every 100 female infants. Thus three solutions present themselves for the couple with a potential or actual female baby, female infanticide, differential abortion and non-registration of female births so they can have another baby, hopefully a male. Non-registration has become a difficult problem especially with the reform after 1978 a new floating population of about 50 million. This group with no permanent address often avoids the birth control authorities in the registration of births especially the female births.

It is interesting to note that the females outnumber the males at the age of 70 on and even increase the ratio until the age of 94 when the males begin to improve the ratio.