Source: www.nytimes.com
NEW YORK, USA, June 15, 2009: United States census data show an ethnic pattern in male and female birth rates. In American families of Chinese, Indian and Korean (but not Japanese) descent, if the first child was a girl, it was more likely that a second child would be a boy. If the first two children were girls, a third child was even more likely to be male.
In general, more boys than girls are born in the United States, by a ratio of 1.05 to 1. But among American families of Chinese, Korean and Indian descent, the likelihood of having a boy increased to 1.17 to 1 if the first child was a girl. If the first two children were girls, the ratio for a third child was 1.51 to 1 — or about 50 percent greater — in favor of boys. Demographers believe this reflects a growing tendency for these families to embrace sex-selection techniques, like in vitro fertilization and sperm sorting, or abortion.
In old-country traditions, elder parents depend on their sons for support and inheritance is carried through the male line. In this country, some Asian families are having more than the two children they had planned for if the first two are girls, and using sex-selection techniques, also called family balancing. US clinics advertising to Indian families provoked criticism in 2001 by some who consider the practice misogynistic.