SEX-RATIO AND COMMUNITY SIZE - NOTES FROM THE NORTHERN ATLANTIC

In parts of the circumpolar North, smaller communities tend to have fe wer young women than men. Among newcomer populations such as non-Nativ es in Alaska, this reflects disproportionate in-migration by young men seeking jobs on the frontier. Imbalances can also emerge, however, du e to female outmigration from small villages-a pattern observed, for e xample, among the native populations of Alaska, Canada and Greenland. Several authors have linked female outmigration with socioeconomic cha nge also in rural Finland, Norway and Ireland. This paper briefly exam ines plots of sex ratio versus community size in four northern Atlanti c regions (Maine, Newfoundland, Iceland and Norway). We then look more closely at Norway, where the correlation between sex ratio and commun ity size is strongest. Multiple regression suggests that economic fact ors, rather than community size as such, best explain this pattern. Sp ecifically, the percent female among young adults tends to be lower in communities experiencing longterm population declines, dominated by f ishing and other primary-industry employment, and having in consequenc e relatively few jobs for women. Further socioeconomic changes in many resource-dependent Atlantic communities seem inevitable as resources become depleted, and they also face the possibility of large-scale env ironmental change. When such changes occur, female outmigration could be an important component of the social response and individual-level adaption.