If current trends continue, 24 million men will find themselves bachel

If current trends continue, 24 million men will find themselves bachelors for life by 2020. China’s “one-child policy” has had an unintended effect: the narrowing of the gene pool. Female children are aborted more than 50 percent of the time, because families want a male heir. From 2000 to 2013, the sex-ratio at birth has gradually climbed to 117:100 in favor of male births, meaning that for every 117 boys only 100 girls were born.

The one-child policy, first put into effect in the 1980s, was designed to slow the rapid growth of the Chinese people, as that growth was causing severe overcrowding. Leaders believed the policy would protect the country’s resources and improve productivity. Unfortunately, they did not foresee that the long-held preference for male heirs would lead to a substantial gender imbalance.

Since the introduction of the policy, the fertility rate among Chinese women has dropped from just over 3 births per woman to just 1.8. It is estimated that even though the country has reduced births by roughly 50 percent, there are still 1 million more children born each week than people dying, creating a steady increase in population in spite of the law.

The gender imbalance resulting from China’s one-child policy has produced noticeable side effects. The more severe this imbalance becomes, the more severe its social side effects will be.

The imbalance causes men who know they are unlikely to form strong family ties to become vagrants. The nation has experienced an increased crime rate that is frequently linked to a large transient population of about 80 million unmarried, low-status, adult males. These individuals are commonly willing to resort to crime to improve their situations, given they have no family ties and perceive that they have nothing to lose.