Yanzhe Zhang 1,2,3, Bowen Zou 2,3, Huai Zhang 2,3 and Jian Zhang 4,*

1 Northeast Asian Research Center, Jilin University

2 Northeast Asian Studies College, Jilin University

3 School of Northeast Asia, Jilin University

4 School of International Economics and International Relations, Liaoning University

* Correspondence: jianzhangccit@sina.com

Abstract: The Seventh National Population Census, recently conducted in 2020, reported the most up-to-date information on the size, structure, and distribution of China’s population. The results showed that the gender imbalance in China is still severe compared with the international stand- ard. With the aim of understanding what has contributed to China’s gender imbalance, this study examined a range of potential influencing factors and measured the extent to which they have af- fected China’s sex structure. We gathered data from 3100 citizens (100 surveys from each provin- cial-level administrative region in mainland China); the useful response rate was 87.5% (2713/3100). We relied on statistical analysis to investigate the phenomenon of male preference in China and used a logit regression to analyze the factors associated with this result. We inspected the factors associated with the perception according to gender, age, annual income, living location, educa- tional level, nationality, family contribution, the ideology of being supported by sons, social status, ability to generate money, and carrying on the family name. The results showed that, among these factors, the relationship of family contribution, the ideology of being supported by sons, and car- rying on the family name with male preference was significant. This study is among the first to explore the factors affecting male preference that could have resulted in China’s gender imbalance. The findings of this research are also important as references for the development of the population strategy and policy instruments used to manage the demographic problems in China.

Keywords: Seventh National Population Census; gender imbalance; male preference; China

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