The male to female ratio at birth in different regions in Malta

Abstract

Males are usually born in excess of females and the ratio of male births to female births is conventionally referred to as M/F. Many factors, including stress, privation and natural disasters are associated with a lowering of M/F. Malta has a North-South divide, with a more affluent North as opposed to a more industrialised and less prosperous South. This study was carried out in order to ascertain whether regional economic differences influenced M/F in Malta. Births by gender, year of birth and locality from 1999 to 2013 were subdivided into ten regions in a geographic distribution devised by the Department of Health Information and Research. Regions were also amalgamated into two groups of five which represented North-West and South-East Malta. The island of Gozo was considered separately. There were no statistically significant differences in M/F between the ten regions nor between North-West, South-East and Gozo regions. There were no significant secular trends in M/F in these regions. M/F declines under adverse environmental factors (including economic stress) but despite the overall poorer economic circumstances in the South of the Island, this study failed to show a significant difference in M/F by region. This may be due at least in part to the relatively small numbers involved. Alternatively, the purported socio-economic differences may not have been sufficiently large so as to skew M/F to statistically significant levels.