[4answers]

A woman can produce a child every 9 months.

A man can produce a child every time he has sex.

Therefore in the grand design or survival of the species, it makes more sense to have a larger female poplulation than male. To maximise offspring production.

However we have a larger male population than a female one !

Is it me or does this seem backwards !

Any ideas why ?

[Capuchin]

Your assumption is that the whole point of the species is to spread at the fastest possible rate. This doesn't seem to be a good idea for a species with little though - they quickly strip their natural habitat of food and have to move elsewhere where they may not be able to thrive as well.

In fact, a species wants to become stronger, and it does this through selection. Females choose the males with the strongest genes to mate with (and males fight over the females with the strongest genes, while casually impregnating the slightly weaker females). In this way, the very strongest genes are promoted and mixed, while the weakest genes do not mate and are not propogated, making the species genetically stronger.

By realising that this is the ultimate aim of evolution, to become a stronger and better adapted creature, we can see why a nearly equal birth-gender rate is optimum.

[benn11]

It might be that the evolution is trying to slow down the production of more generations by cutting down on the number of females in society but science would disagree with me.

[firmbeliever]

About the statement you made-
"However we have a larger male population than a female one !"

I think this should be checked first,
I believe more men are killed during wars and conflicts,
I have also heard that male babies probably die more than females during their infancy.

So it would be that the females maybe more than males, if you could check up on the statistics of this...

[colbtech]

According to CIA World Factbook, Sex ratio total population: 1.014 male(s)/female (2007 est.)

Once again according to CIA factbook that means there are 42,224,175 ladies just dying to meet me! Hmmm? (No it doesn't... darn!) Sorry chaps got you all excited!

[LearningAsIGo]

I actually heard the female population world-wide was 51% overall.

Its best to focus on a sub-group. Some have more male, some more female. Looking at two random groups might help close the span of questions.

[Capuchin]

There are 105 males born for every 100 females. Males have a higher mortality rate, though.

[templelane]

Also you have forgotten raising the child. If it doesn't reach sexual maturity itself then it's still an evolutionary dead end for your genes. Children are going to be more likely to survive and prosper if they have more than one parent around. This is especially true for humans who have a long maturation time to consider. Yes it is possible for a man to reproduce every time he has sex but his offspring might not survive/ become potential mates for others. This is especially true for the old hunter gatherer situation when surviving was much more of an issue (and when natural selection held its strongest grip on humanity.)

Also female choosiness comes into play. A female will want to have the best chance for her offspring as well and therefore will want a partner around - enter concealed ovulation and other feminine tricks to keep the man around and bonded to her.

So you see it's no where near as black and white as sperm meets egg = baby. Not evolutionary anyway.

[s_cianci]

Actually there are more females than males (at least in the U.S.)

[s_cianci]

there are 105 males born for every 100 females. Males have a higher mortality rate, though.

This statistic is correct when considering young mothers. I'm not sure of the cutoff age but maybe 25 or something like that. For older mothers the gap becomes less and eventually closes at 91 males for every 100 females for the oldest mothers. The reason for this is that, as a woman ages, her cycle becomes less regular. The Y sperm (males) are faster than the X sperm (females) and thus make it to the egg more quickly. So a young woman, who ovulates on a more regular basis, is more likely to conceive a boy since the Ys generally "beat" the Xs in getting to the "prize", i.e. the egg cell that they all want to fertilize. However, although slower, the X sperm survive longer than the Ys. So an older woman, whose ovulation cycle is less regular, is more likely to conceive a girl since the Xs can "hold out" for a longer period while "waiting" for the egg cell to ovulate and enter the fallopian tube and get fertilized.

[MOWERMAN2468]

And I know there will be disagreement with this, but it is a fact if you research it.
And now you know one of the reasons that countrys will go to war! It is a form of population control.
Yes this is a fact of a purpose for wars in the past, present , and future. Now though there are females in the armed forces. But this is one of the reasons for wars. Population Control. And RESEARCH this before telling me your views.

[JamieLynn]

I'm pretty sure there's more females than males. For one thing femalesusually live longer than males