High Sex Ratios at Birth in the Caucasus: Modern Technology to Satisfy Old Desires

摘要

Although geographical and temporal variations exist, the sex ratio at birth is generally around 105 male births per 100 female births. Just after the collapse of the Soviet Union in late 1991, the sex ratio at birth (SRB) started increasing simultaneously in the three independent Caucasian countries, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. Rising from a normal level of 103-107 in the 1980s, the SRB exceeded 110 male births per 100 female births by 1995. In the first decade of the 2000s, the SRB rose even higher in Armenia and Azerbaijan and showed erratic trends in Georgia. Official statistics do not indicate such high SRBs in any of the surrounding countries. Nor are neighboring countries that share a frontier with one of these three Caucasian countriescharacterized by a higher level of SRB in their border regions (see detailed maps in Mesle, Vallin, and Badurashvili 2007).