For most of human history, families begged the universe for a boy. Now, in a growing number of countries, many parents quietly hope for a girl instead.

Recent reporting by The Economist describes one of the biggest social flips of our time. Sex ratios at birth are slowly going back to biological “normal,” and in some places surveys show a clear preference for daughters. At the same time, experts caution that this shift comes after decades of violence against girls and still lives inside gender stereotypes.

Here is what we know so far.

Why parents around the world prefer girls to boys is suddenly a real question

For years, the story looked brutally one-sided.

In 1990, Nobel Prize–winning economist Amartya Sen looked at birth ratios across Asia, North Africa, and China and calculated that more than 100 million women were essentially “missing.” He meant that, based on normal birth ratios and life expectancy, millions of girls should have existed but did not, mainly because of sex-selective abortion, infanticide, or neglect.

Those patterns intensified once ultrasound became common. Parents could learn the fetus’s sex early and decide whether to continue the pregnancy. The Economist later estimated that since 1980, there have been about 50 million fewer girls born than would naturally be expected, largely in countries such as China and India.

However, that bias has started to weaken.

The Economist reported that annual “excess male births” peaked around 2000 at roughly 1.7 million a year. Today, that number sits closer to 200,000, bringing global birth ratios back within the biologically typical range of about 105 boys for every 100 girls, according to Vox’s breakdown of the data.

One key line from the Economist analysis shows the scale of the shift: “the decline in sex preference at birth in the past 25 years has saved the equivalent of 7 million girls.”

That is a demographic plot twist.

From “missing girls” to a world where parents around the globe prefer girls to boys

The change shows up in opinion polls, adoption patterns, and even fertility clinics.

Between 1983 and 2003, the share of South Korean women who said it was “necessary” to have a son dropped from 48 percent to 6 percent, according to The Economist, as cited by Vox. Nearly half of women now say they want daughters instead.

In Japan, the shift goes even further. By 2002, about 75 percent of couples who wanted only one child said they hoped for a girl.

In the United States, where some IVF clinics allow sex selection, there is growing evidence that couples who choose embryos tend to prefer girls. Adoption agencies also see that pattern. A former director of the Lutheran Adoption Network told Women’s Agenda that “about 80 percent of prospective parents will choose a girl, rather than adopt a boy.”

Even behavior around family size has flipped. Historically, parents who had a daughter first were more likely to “keep trying” until they had a son. Now, in some countries, couples who have a girl first are less likely to have more children, suggesting greater satisfaction with a daughter.

All of that points in the same direction: the old default preference for boys no longer dominates everywhere. In some contexts, it appears to be reversing.

How girls in school and at work helped shift an ancient bias

This new trend did not come out of nowhere.

One significant factor sits in classrooms. Around the world, girls tend to outperform boys in school. In the most recent international PISA exams, 15-year-old girls scored higher than boys in reading in 79 out of 81 participating countries, while the historic male advantage in math shrank to single digits.

Higher education tells a similar story. Globally, there are about 113 female university students for every 100 male students, according to the same Vox analysis of international data.

The workplace has shifted, too. Women still earn less than men on average, but the gender pay gap has narrowed. In several U.S. cities, young women actually outearn young men, according to Vox’s reporting on American wage data.

As daughters become more educated, more financially independent, and more visible in professional life, parents see clearer futures for them. That can weaken older ideas that a son is the only “good investment” or the only real retirement plan.

Governments also had to confront the fallout from decades of anti-girl bias.

In China and South Korea, authorities restricted sex-selective abortion and tried to address skewed sex ratios. In India, campaigns like “Save the Daughter, Educate the Daughter” aimed to raise the status of girls and shift public opinion.

On a global level, the UN Population Fund launched the Global Programme to Prevent Son Preference and Gender-Biased Sex Selection in 2017. The initiative works with governments in countries such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Georgia, Nepal, and Vietnam to tackle the root causes of boy bias.

All those changes created a world where parents can imagine daughters with degrees, careers, and economic power. That imagination matters.

Where parents around the world prefer girls to boys still intersects with old stereotypes

The new numbers feel like good news, but experts warn that the story stays complicated.

In regions of northwestern India, birth ratios that heavily favor boys still appear in local data. Parts of sub-Saharan Africa show relatively normal sex ratios at birth but continue patterns of discrimination after birth, such as worse nutrition and less medical care for girls.

There is also the reality that boys are struggling in many societies. Researchers see higher rates of school failure, violent crime, and delayed adulthood among young men, especially in wealthy countries. In the United States, about 20 percent of men between 25 and 34 still live with their parents, compared with 15 percent of women in that age range.

Some analysts argue that parents may lean toward daughters partly because they see girls as more responsible, more likely to succeed in school, or more likely to care for aging parents. That attitude still frames girls as default caretakers. It swaps one stereotype for another.

As Women’s Agenda pointed out, some adoption agencies and IVF clinics now see a surplus of boys waiting “and waiting” for families, while girls get chosen faster. That imbalance creates a quieter version of the same problem.

The core point from this new data is simple, though: The world has moved away from a deadly preference for boys that once erased millions of girls. Birth ratios in places like China and India now sit much closer to biological norms. Policies, social movements, and changing expectations for women helped drive that change.

What comes next is up to each society. The data shows that humanity can shift even its oldest biases. The question now is whether we can move toward a world where sons and daughters arrive as exactly what they are: Just children, equally wanted.

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