Coming Back to Normal?

An analysis of data from Censuses 2001 and 2011 shows that despite the increase in overall population sex ratio in this period, the 0-6 sex ratio and 0-1 sex ratio have continued to decline. This suggests that there is no let-up in daughter defi cit. However, one positive factor is that the north-western states which have had a long history of high levels of daughter defi cit have shown an increase in the 0-1 sex ratio. The reasons for this need to be determined. Another positive aspect is that daughter defi cit seems to be lower amongst the younger cohort of currently married women; it will be interesting to see whether this persists as the cohort ages.