I guess a baby’s gender is not important. What’s important is that the baby is safe and healthy.
Global Research: Pink or blue – does a baby’s gender matter?
Family Research - Mothers long for a daughter
”Hoping for a girl this time?”. This is the question that expectant mothers are often asked if they already have a brood of boys.
Our team at MyHeritage.com thought they’d look into this theory and the resulting research, outlined below, indicates not only that parents do keep trying for a girl but that the desire to have children of both genders is a major driver of large families around the world.
Read on to find out more about these unique findings!
The most profound statistic was that families with 2 boys were almost 23% more likely to have more children than families with a boy and a girl, indicating a strong will amongst parents to produce a girl.
Data for families with 2 or 3 girls also showed that there was a notable percentage difference in those continuing to have children, compared to same sized families with mixed gender children – possibly driven by the desire to produce a boy.
The findings were based on analysing worldwide family tree data from over 600,000 families, who bore at least 3 to 4 children from 1990 until 2010.
The table below divides the research into three categories – Global, United Kingdom and USA, and shows the number and percentage of families who continue to reproduce after 2 and 3 children of varying gender composites. For example – out of 617154 families around the world – 172048 (equal to 27.9%) had a third child following 2 boys.
Families with 3 children and more (those who had more children after 2):
| First Children Gender | All countries | UK | USA | |||
| Female-Female | 165851 | 26.9% | 7653 | 27.3% | 36077 | 26.9% |
| Female-Male | 140056 | 22.7% | 6138 | 21.9% | 30177 | 22.5% |
| Male-Female | 139199 | 22.6% | 6158 | 22.0% | 30136 | 22.5% |
| Male-Male | 172048 | 27.9% | 8059 | 28.8% | 37747 | 28.1% |
| Total | 617154 | 28008 | 134137 | |||
Families with 4 children and more (those who had more children after 3):
| First Children Gender | All countries | UK | USA | |||
| Female-Female-Female | 19049 | 14.1% | 998 | 15.4% | 4976 | 14.3% |
| Female-Female-Male | 16315 | 12.1% | 774 | 11.9% | 4258 | 12.2% |
| Female-Male-Female | 16902 | 12.5% | 719 | 11.1% | 3923 | 11.3% |
| Female-Male-Male | 15853 | 11.7% | 755 | 11.6% | 4179 | 12.0% |
| Male-Female-Female | 15288 | 11.3% | 751 | 11.6% | 3984 | 11.4% |
| Male-Female-Male | 15053 | 11.1% | 710 | 10.9% | 3852 | 11.0% |
| Male-Male-Female | 16106 | 11.9% | 741 | 11.4% | 4210 | 12.1% |
| Male-Male-Male | 20691 | 15.3% | 1039 | 16.0% | 5488 | 15.7% |
| Total | 135257 | 6487 | 34870 | |||
Global power couple, David and Victoria Beckham, (currently expecting their first girl) fall into the category of 15.3% of families worldwide with 3 boys who choose to have another child – 22.4% higher than families with 3 children of mixed gender who continue to reproduce.
We’d love to hear your opinions on these family statistics. Are they consistent with your own real life experiences or those of family and friends?
How To Plan Baby Gender
July 22, 2011
Hi,
Do we need hope or we can do sth about our baby gender?