SEX-DIFFERENCES OF INFANT AND CHILD-MORTALITY IN CHINA

The purpose of this paper was to study the sex differences in infant m ortality and mortality before the age of 5 in China, and the differenc es between urban and rural areas on the one hand and urban areas of ma inland China and Hong Kong on the other. Published data from the 1982 and 1990 national censuses, the mortality survey of 1976, and UN's pub lications were used to calculate sex differences and sex ratios of mor tality. Infant mortality of both sexes decreased notably from the 1970 's onwards, the sex ratios of mortality being 1.15 in 1973-75, 1.06 in 1981 and 0.86 in 1990. A remarkable decline of mortality before the a ge of 5 was also seen in both sexes, but the sex ratios of mortality w ere not greatly altered, remaining less than 1 from the 1970's on. In rural areas female infants and young children had a higher mortality c ompared with males than in urban areas. In Hong Kong, the sex differen ces of infant and early child mortality were much smaller than in urba n areas of mainland China.