The great recession of 2007 in the United States and the male: Female ratio at birth

Objective: male live births slightly exceed female live births by approximately 3%. the ratio of male to total live births is conventionally represented as m/f. many factors have been shown to affect m/f,mainly privation,toxins,and stress,all of which reduce m/f. population stress may be engendered by natural phenomena such as earthquakes and man-made events such as short wars,terrorist attacks,and contracting economies. this study was conducted to ascertain whether the onset of the “great recession” (2007) was associated with changes in m/f in the united states (us). material and methods: annual monthly live births by gender for january 2006 to december 2008 were obtained from united states centres for disease control and prevention. results: in 2007,there were 4316233 live births  [m/f: 0.51157; 95% confidence intervals: 0.51110–0.51205). m/f rose between january and june,and then fell sharply between august and december. m/f was statistically significantly lower in the second half of 2007 (p=0.007). the dip in m/f from june to july was also significant (p=0.02). these findings were not replicated in the amalgamated data for 2006 and 2008. conclusion: the united states housing boom of the mid-2000s was fueled by rising house prices and cheap mortgages given to credit-poor buyers. a halt in rising house prices resulted in defaults and foreclosures,triggering the worst financial crisis since the great depression. the associated stress appears to have decreased m/f in the us. © 2015 by the turkish-german gynecological education and research foundation.