The Sex-Ratio in Human Populations 
of males will persist later and later. If and when the sex-ratio 
at conception, or anything like it, is carried through to marriage- 
able age, there will certainly be remarkable social repercussions. 
Even now, women are beginning to have the scarcity value 
previously held by men and it is to be hoped that competition 
among men for females may have the effect of making them 
more colourful. But the transformation of men into human 
peacocks, however striking, would be only one effect. 
Table I shows the situation in England and Wales in 1960 
resulting from a sex-ratio at birth between 104 and 106. This 
table gives the actual excess of males in thousands up to the age 
of 29 and the excess of females thereafter. Obviously, at the 
Table I 
EXCESS OF MALES OR FEMALES AT MARRIAGEABLE AGE 
1960 
THOUSANDS 
Age groups Males Females Excess males Excess females 
15-19 1560 1509 5I — 
20-24 1482 1451 31 —- 
25-29 1446 1414 32 — 
30-34 1491 1497 aha 6 
35-39 1646 1680 = 34 
40-44 1451 1499 ae 48 
present time, the excess of males at early marriageable age is 
not sufficient to bring social pressures which might result in the 
legal and religious recognition of polyandry. What then can 
happen, now and when the excess of males increases and per- 
sists still longer? The simplest solution would be for everyone 
to wait, before getting married, until enough males had died 
to restore numerical equality between the sexes, at present at 
about age 30 years. Another possibility is that the female 
vacuum at early marriageable age would draw in females from 
other countries, possibly from the Common Market. This is 
not likely to happen because the tendencies discussed are found 
in most countries; we are in fact heading for a world shortage 
of marriageable females. Another possibility is that the surplus 
95 
