Israel exhibits a homogenous male-to-female ratio at birth for all races and religions

Abstract

Objective: Male live births occur in excess of female live births and their ratio (M/F) is usually expressed as male divided by total births. The value of M/F varies, declining with stress. Israel has been shown to have a relatively stable M/F. This study was carried out in order to ascertain whether there were any racial or religious differences in M/F in Israel, and to compare with totals for Europe and North America.

Methods: Annual data for male and female live births were available from the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics for the period 2002–2011. Excel was used for data entry, overall analysis and charting. For race, data were available as Jews and others, and Arabs. For religion, data were available as Jews and Moslems.

Results: There were a total of 1 523 956 live births. Overall M/F was 0.5127 (95% CI: 0.5119, 0.5135). There were no significant differences between the races and no significant trends with time. Male-to-Female Ratio (M/F) is mid-way between that of Europe and North America.

Conclusion: The psychological and psychiatric effects of stress in Israel are well documented. However, there was no apparent effect on M/F that is manifested as racial or religious differences in M/F. This could be due to equal levels of stress in all groups or insufficient levels of stress or insufficient births to demonstrate M/F differences.