The Re-emergence of “Missing Women” in China

• Published in: The China quarterly (London) Vol. 248; no. 1; pp. 1200 - 1211
• Main Authors: Bulte, Erwin, Hsieh, Chih-Sheng, Tu, Qin, Wang, Ruixin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.12.2021
• Subjects: Abortion; Amendments; Bats; Censuses; Children; Children & youth; Delayed; Education; Families & family life; Females; Fertility; Gender; Girls; Parents & parenting; Policy making; Population policy; Public services; Quality of life; Ratios; Registration; Research Report; Statistics; Ultrasonic imaging; Underreporting; Women; China; 中华人民共和国统计法; 人口普查; population census; 性别比; missing women; “消失的”女性; “被瞒报”女性; “underreporting” of women; 计划生育政策; Chinese Statistics Law; sex ratio; one-child policy
• ISSN: 0305-7410; 1468-2648
• DOI: 10.1017/S0305741021000503

Empirical evidence suggests that close to 100 million women are “missing” worldwide. We revisit the empirical evidence for China, the country with the most missing women. Nearly ten million girls born in the 1980s and 1990s who were “missing” according to earlier census data can be found again in the 2010 population census. We discuss two possible explanations for the re-emergence of these formerly missing girls: the delayed registration of girls owing to economic reasons, and the response to amendments to the Chinese Statistics Law in 2009 and policy changes in the 2010 population census. Using the most recent statistics, we document patterns of the underreporting of women over time and across regions as well as explore the basic determinants of underreporting of women. Important policy challenges remain. For the unregistered children, the lack of access to public services will increase their vulnerability and adversely affect their quality of life.