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Data

Number of 'missing women' in the world

About this data

Source
Bongaarts and Guilmoto (2015) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
April 17, 2019
Date range
1970–2050
Unit
missing women

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

Bongaarts and Guilmoto – How many more missing women? Excess female mortality and prenatal sex selection, 1970–2050

Missing women are defined as the number of additional women who would be alive in the absence of sex discrimination. Missing women are the sum of women missing at birth (as a result of sex-selective abortion) and excess female mortality through infanticide or neglect.

Missing female births and excess female mortality are calculated based on the difference between observed and expected sex ratios.

Authors have calculated this historically from 1970 to today in five-year intervals, with projections through to 2050.

Retrieved on
April 17, 2019
Retrieved from
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2015.00046.x
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Bongaarts, J., & Guilmoto, C. Z. (2015). How many more missing women? Excess female mortality and prenatal sex selection, 1970–2050. Population and Development Review, 41(2), 241-269.

Missing women are defined as the number of additional women who would be alive in the absence of sex discrimination. Missing women are the sum of women missing at birth (as a result of sex-selective abortion) and excess female mortality through infanticide or neglect.

Missing female births and excess female mortality are calculated based on the difference between observed and expected sex ratios.

Authors have calculated this historically from 1970 to today in five-year intervals, with projections through to 2050.

Retrieved on
April 17, 2019
Retrieved from
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2015.00046.x
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Bongaarts, J., & Guilmoto, C. Z. (2015). How many more missing women? Excess female mortality and prenatal sex selection, 1970–2050. Population and Development Review, 41(2), 241-269.

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All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

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Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Number of 'missing women' in the world”. Our World in Data (2026). Data adapted from Bongaarts and Guilmoto. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260511-092124/grapher/global-number-of-missing-women.html [online resource] (archived on May 11, 2026).

How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

Bongaarts and Guilmoto (2015) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

Bongaarts and Guilmoto (2015) – processed by Our World in Data. “Number of 'missing women' in the world” [dataset]. Bongaarts and Guilmoto, “How many more missing women? Excess female mortality and prenatal sex selection, 1970–2050” [original data]. Retrieved May 11, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260511-092124/grapher/global-number-of-missing-women.html (archived on May 11, 2026).

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