Oh, boy.
Americans would still prefer to have a son over a daughter if they were only allowed to have one kid, according to a recent Gallup poll, continuing a decades-long favoritism. Thirty-six percent of respondents indicated preference for a boy, while 28 percent said they’d want a girl. The other 36 percent said they had no preference or opinion.
The poll’s eight-point gap between preferences for a boy and a girl clocks in slightly below average: Over the 11 times that Gallup has posed the question since 1941, Americans have preferred boys to girls by an average 11-point gap. The disparity was largest in 1947 and 2000 (15 percent) and smallest in 1990 (4 percent).
Men’s preference for having a boy is a key driver, as they’ve leaned toward boys over girls by 25 points on average over the years. Women, meanwhile, have opted for girls by a modest three points on average. Forty-three percent of men in the present survey said they’d prefer a boy, compared to 24 percent who wanted a girl — a 19 percent difference. But nearly equal proportions of women chose girls and boys (31 percent and 30 percent, respectively).
“Americans’ preferences for male or female children have been evident for decades, with slightly more than a third indicating they have no preference, but with those who have a choice preferring boys over girls,” the report concluded. “This ‘boy preference’ is largely because men would rather have boys.”
Preference for a boy in the current survey was also most pronounced among younger Americans, according to Gallup: Nearly half (48 percent) of people ages 18 to 29 opted for a boy, compared to 31 percent who wanted a girl, a 17-point gap. In contrast, the 30-to-49 crowd had a six-point gap; those ages 50 to 64 had an 11-point gap, and people 65 and up preferred boys by just four points. The youngest age bracket was also the most likely to express a preference at all.
Despite Gallup’s trends, a working paper earlier this year signaled a shift in Americans’ preferences on this front. Having a girl instead of a boy once prompted parents to have more kids, “theoretically to try for a son,” the New York Times reported in March — but now, the research found, having a girl actually makes parents less likely to continue having children. “Some data from adoptions and fertility procedures that allow parents to choose the sex of their baby also shows a preference, to varying degrees, for girls,” added the Times.