Urban Women Less Likely to Have Children

Study shows that women in cities are less likely to have children.

Study finds that women are less likely to procreate in urban areas with a higher percentage of females than males in the population.

Researchers examined how female-biased sex ratios are linked to marriages, reproductive histories, dispersal, and the effects of urbanization on society.

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‘Women were 15% less likely to reproduce in urban areas compared to rural areas’
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Using a massive internal migration event and a database of the evacuees, researchers obtained data on the names, sex, date of birth, birthplace, occupation, year of marriage, reproductive records, and the years and names of all places the evacuee lived from birth until the evacuation.

The team then followed the annual reproductive and dispersal decisions of 8,296 evacuee women aged 19-42 from 1945 to 1955 who were unmarried when the war ended in 1945. They measured the sex ratios in the locations these women lived and estimated women's probability to start a family or disperse.

Results showed that local sex ratio strongly influenced the likelihood of reproducing but this relationship differed between rural and urban environments.

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While female biased population sex ratio in urban environments lowered women's likelihood to reproduce for the first time, it was not the same for rural areas. But, these women did not move into areas with more men, rather were more likely to relocate to urban areas even though the sex ratio was strongly female-biased there.

The researchers believe that women moved to urban areas for work and education opportunities, but the competitive market for a spouse decreased their likelihood of having children than women who lived outside of urban areas.

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In conclusion, women were 15% less likely to reproduce in urban areas compared to rural areas. With every 1% increase of men, women's probability to have a first child also increased by 2.7% in towns and only 0.4% in rural areas.

Researchers point out that though the population studied is historical, the findings can be applicable to present day urban environments as women outnumber men in many cities across the world.

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Source-Medindia