WATERING THE NEIGHBOUR'S GARDEN: THE GROWING - CICRED

A SHARP INCREASE IN SEX RATIO AT BIRTH IN THE CAUCASE…
this increase to a simple deterioration in the quality of birth registration.
Surprisingly, authors of official reports and further scientific
analyses never mention the recent rise of sex ratio at birth, even when
dealing with the different factors of abortion (ANSS and ORC Macro,
2001; Serbanescu et al. 2001, 2003; Goldberg and Serbanescu, 2004).
Figure 4 Trend in sex ratio at birth, Georgia and Armenia, 1985-2000
Sex ratio
160
150
140
130
120
110
100
Georgia
Civil registration
Survey
90
1985 1990 1995 2000
160
150
140
130
120
110
100
Armenia
90
1985 1990 1995 2000
Source: computed by the authors from surveys (Serbanescu et al., 2001; ANSS and ORC
Macro, 2001) and civil registration data (National Statistical Service of Armenia, State Department
for Statistics of Georgia).
4. The key role of the third child
Fertility surveys also pave the way for a certain number of analyses
that are not possible using data from civil registration statistics. Examining
the birth order in particular is an interesting avenue to explore.
The increase in sex ratio appears to be closely associated to birth order
and it seems that the essence of the recently observed phenomenon
relates to third order births (Figure 5).
In Georgia, the sex ratio for first order births has not moved away
from the standard ratio of 105 males per 100 females. For second
order births, the situation is a little less clear as the ratio has often
exceeded 105 over the past fifteen years but the trend is uneven. For
third births, however, an impressive increase in the sex ratio is observed,
far higher than the average ratio irrespective of order. In 1997-
1999, the sex ratio for third births was 140 versus 118 for all order
births, and 105 to 108 for first and second order births.
In Armenia, the situation is slightly different as the sex ratio at
birth also increased in the recent years for first and second orders but
again there is no possible comparison between its increase at the third
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