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.”
The report can also be found on some websites like mtkenyajournal.co.ke and on www.independent.ng.
VERIFYING THE CLAIM:
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.
IS THE RATIO OF WOMEN TO MEN TRULY HIGHER?
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!
Great verification