The Rise of Sonless Families in Asia and North Africa

Abstract

A neglected consequence of declining fertility is the likely rise of families with children of one sex—only sons or only daughters. Increases in such families present important demographic shifts that may weaken patrilineal family systems. We assess whether sons-only and daughters-only families rose in Asia and North Africa from the early 1990s to around 2015. Using 88 surveys and two censuses, we examine how the number and sex composition of children of mothers aged 40–49 changed across 20 countries, representing 87% of the region's population and 54% of the global population. We also compare observed trends to sex-indifferent counterfactuals, quantify contributions of fertility declines with decompositions, and investigate subnational trends in China and India. Increases in sons-only families were universal where numbers of children fell. Growth of daughters-only families was suppressed in patrilineal contexts, but these sonless families still rose significantly in 13 of 18 countries where numbers declined. By 2015, over a quarter of families in the region had only sons and nearly a fifth only daughters. There was considerable variation across countries: recent levels ranged from 28.3% to 3.4% daughters-only and from 40.1% to 6.0% sons-only. China and the rest of East Asia had the highest shares.

From bringing up sons to raising daughters for old age: Patrilineal beliefs regarding old-age security in the Chinese mainland

“…Currently, the ties between married daughters and their natal families are becoming stronger, and a large part of the credit goes to the one-child policy (OCP) (Zhang, 2009), under which the decline in fertility has led to a rising proportion of sonless families (Roshan and Allendorf, 2022). Within sonless households, the patriarchal family system is weakened because the family cannot take part in patriarchal traditions, and daughters are expected to carry on sons' positions and duties, making daughters identical to sons (Allendorf, 2015(Allendorf, , 2020.…”

“…Therefore, many Chinese citizens likely ended up with just one or two children, significantly reducing their chances of having a son (Guilmoto, 2009). In fact, from 1975 to 2015, within Chinese families whose mothers were aged 40 to 49, the share of families having daughters only rose from 5.3% to 28.3%, although this percentage is still lower than that of having sons only, which increased from 9.4% to 40.1% (Roshan and Allendorf, 2022).…”