WATERING THE NEIGHBOUR'S GARDEN: THE GROWING - CICRED

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LI S.–WEI Y.- JIANG Q. - M. W. FELDMAN
areas. SRB was abnormally high in rural areas and relatively low in
urban areas before the 1990s. A gradual rise in SRB year by year in
urban areas reflects the overall abnormal SRB nationwide.
Figure 2 Sex ratio at birth by parity in selected census years
160
155
150
145
140
135
130
125
120
115
110
105
100
SRB Parity 1 Parity 2
Parity 3
1982 1990 2000
Source: Tabulation from the population census (1982, 1990 and 2000), (PCO, 1985; PCO, 1993;
PCO, 2002).
Figure 3 Sex ratio at birth in 1982-2000, urban and rural areas
125
120
115
110
105
100
SRB
Urban Rural
1982 1987 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
Source: China Population Statistics Yearbooks.
Figure 4 summarizes the sex ratio at birth by province from the
last three censuses. It shows that SRB was abnormally high in the
provinces with strong traditional culture, such as Shandong, Shaanxi,
Shanxi and Henan along the Yellow River Basin, and coastal provinces
along the Yangtze River Basin, such as Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian
and Guangdong. SRB was closer to normal in mega-cities such as
Shanghai, provinces with large minority populations such as Tibet, and
provinces in North-East China such as Heilongjiang. The regional