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Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences

Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences is a research topic within Gender Studies. Science Explorer counts 19k research works in it since 1950. 10.2% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the persistent gender imbalance in East and South Asia, focusing on son preference, sex ratios, sex-selective abortion, the impact of the one-child policy, gender bias, fertility decline, and the consequences of missing women. The research also delves into factors such as maternal diet and socioeconomic influences on gender imbalance.

  • Son Preference
  • Sex Ratios
  • Sex-Selective Abortion
  • One-Child Policy
  • Gender Bias
  • Fertility Decline
  • Missing Women
  • Family Planning
  • Maternal Diet
  • Socioeconomic Factors
Research works
19k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.9k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.2%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+22%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
29% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences

Which countries lead Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences research?

By volume, the United States and China publish the most (782 and 669 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 782 works
  2. 2 China 669 works
  3. 3 India 545 works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 224 works
  5. 5 Australia 102 works
  6. 6 Canada 98 works
  7. 7 Germany 85 works
  8. 8 Japan 79 works
  9. 9 Italy 74 works
  10. 10 Pakistan 73 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 28.6%China: 24.5%India: 19.9%United Kingdom: 8.2%6 others listed: 18.7%29%largest
United States782 · 28.6%China669 · 24.5%India545 · 19.9%United Kingdom224 · 8.2%6 others listed511 · 18.7%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences research?

By volume in 2022-now, Peking University publishes the most Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences research, followed by International Institute for Population Sciences and Sapienza University of Rome.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Peking UniversityChina 33 works
  2. 2 International Institute for Population SciencesIndia 24 works
  3. 3 Sapienza University of RomeItaly 22 works
  4. 4 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 21 works
  5. 5 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 18 works
  6. 6 Tribhuvan UniversityNepal 18 works
  7. 7 Renmin University of ChinaChina 17 works
  8. 8 Chinese Academy of Social SciencesChina 16 works
  9. 9 Fudan UniversityChina 16 works
  10. 10 National University of SingaporeSingapore 14 works

Who are the leading researchers in Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences include Christopher J L Murray, George Davey Smith and Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta.

  1. 1 Christopher J L Murray United States 583k citations
  2. 2 George Davey Smith United Kingdom 435k citations
  3. 3 Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta Pakistan 371k citations
  4. 4 Farshad Farzadfar Iran 298k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences?

The most cited paper in Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences is "Sex differences in human mate preferences: Evolutionary hypotheses tested in 37 cultures" (David Michael Buss, 1989), with 4,529 citations. Next come "Natural Selection of Parental Ability to Vary the Sex Ratio of Offspring" (3,886) and "Extraordinary Sex Ratios" (3,722).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Sex differences in human mate preferences: Evolutionary hypotheses tested in 37 cultures David Michael Buss · Behavioral and Brain Sciences Open access Mar 1989 4,529
2 Natural Selection of Parental Ability to Vary the Sex Ratio of Offspring Robert L. Trivers, Dan E. Willard · Science 5 Jan 1973 3,886
3 Extraordinary Sex Ratios William D. O. Hamilton · Science 28 Apr 1967 3,722
4 BARGAINING WITH PATRIARCHY Deniz Kandiyoti · Gender & Society Sep 1988 3,024
5 The Consequences of Divorce for Adults and Children Paul R. Amato · Journal of Marriage and the Family Nov 2000 2,930
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences research done?

The largest centres of Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), London (United Kingdom), Shanghai (China) and New Delhi (India). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Kathmandu.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 154 works
  2. 2 LondonUnited Kingdom 68 works
  3. 3 ShanghaiChina 66 works
  4. 4 New DelhiIndia 50 works
  5. 5 New YorkUnited States 47 works
  6. 6 MumbaiIndia 40 works
  7. 7 NanjingChina 37 works
  8. 8 WuhanChina 36 works
  9. 9 TokyoJapan 35 works
  10. 10 GuangzhouChina 31 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. KathmanduNP · 26.2 works7.4×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences than the world average.

See Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences on the map

Where is the best place to study Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences?

Among universities, judged by research, Peking University, Chinese University of Hong Kong and London School of Economics and Political Science score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 19.93%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →London School of Eco…Peking UniversityChinese University o…International Instit…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Peking UniversityChina 76.721.1%4.7×33 +105.6%
2Chinese University of Hong KongChina 65.316.3%5.4×14 +101.0%
3London School of Economics and Political ScienceUnited Kingdom 61.629.2%10.3×8 +5.1%
4International Institute for Population SciencesIndia 59.111.7%214.5×24 +8.3%
5Renmin University of ChinaChina 59.119.8%15.4×17 +31.8%
6University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 59.012.4%3.8×18 +12.4%
7Pennsylvania State UniversityUnited States 58.025.4%2.5×9 +19.4%
8Zhejiang UniversityChina 57.623.3%1.5×14 +33.4%
9King's College LondonUnited Kingdom 57.423.9%3.2×10 +87.8%
10University of Hong KongChina 56.616.2%3.5×11 +8.4%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences, country by country

Is Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 22% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.017% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences0.017% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences10.5% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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