Jottings from the Granite Studio

Number four on Foreign Policy’s recent “Five Population Trends to Watch” list cites China and India as leading examples of the “Too many grooms, not enough brides” trend:

Military experts have a saying: Amateurs study strategy; professionals study logistics. When it comes to geopolitics, professionals study demographics…

In China, a strong preference for sons and the country’s one-child policy mean that 118 boys are being born for every 100 girls. In India, a tradition of crushing dowries and the need for a son to support parents in old age have contributed to a gender imbalance as high as 120 boys per 100 girls in some parts. When these boys grow into adults, it could set off a testosterone time bomb of sexually frustrated young men who can’t find partners. China projects that in 2020 it will have 30 million more men of marriageable age than women.

There are many factors that can contribute to social instability and political unrest, but having a large population of young, underemployed, and unmarried males is a big one. By way of example, I give you the Old “Wild” West in the United States, rural China in the mid- to late-19th century, and Sanlitun’r on any given Saturday night. There are others but those are the ones that come screaming to mind.