A photograph of what appears to be newspaper clip is being forwarded in WhatsApp groups. The screaming headline says: ‘Husbands will be scarce by 2023.’
The photograph is accompanied with spurious claims entitled: “UN publishes 1st quarter Demography Report 2023.”
The claim
According to the message: There are 7.8 billion people on the planet (earth). The report shows:
- Women = 5.6Billion,
- Men = 2.2 billion
So, they advised women to be careful in showing attitudes to any man because out of the 2.2 billion men:
• One billion are married already.
• 130 million are in prison.
• 70 million are mentally ill.
That means that we have just about 1 billion men available for marriage and out of the 1 billion:
• 50% are jobless
• 3% are gay
• 5% are Catholic priests
• 10% are your relatives
• 32% are above 66 years.
So, ladies, both the married and singles should handle men with respect because there’s Man shortage all over the world.
Fact Check
At best, the claims are a joke taken too far. However, many people are taking it to be true, hence the need to offer scientific rebuttal of the claims.
World population
According to Countrymeters, a reference website that provides real time statistics and data on population, births, deaths, net migration and population growth of any country, the global population as of the time of writing this story was as follow:
- 8,100,071,346 (current global population)
- 4,086,933,054 (current global male population)
- 4,013,138,292 (current global female population)
According to the website, globally, the male-female ratio is 50.5% males to 49.5% females. In other words, there are more males globally than females.
Another website, Worldometer, which is also a reference website that provides counters and real-time statistics for diverse topics gave the current world population as of the time of filing this report as 8,043,815,696, and it cites its sources as the United Nations Statistics Division, World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), among others.
This is corroborated by Statista, a German online platform that specializes in data gathering and visualization, which states that, “Worldwide, the male population is slightly higher than the female population, although this varies by country. As of 2021, the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, under the control of China, has the highest share of women worldwide with 54.2 percent. Curacao followed directly with 54 percent.”
Global male unemployment
In terms of global male unemployment, online platform The Global Economy, provides country-by-country statistics, defining unemployment as “the share of the labour force that is without work but available for and seeking employment.”
“Unemployment rate for males, 2022 – Country rankings: The average for 2022 based on 176 countries was 6.83 percent. The highest value was in South Africa: 28.4 percent and the lowest value was in Qatar: 0.05 percent. The indicator is available from 1991 to 2022,” the website states.
Global gay population
According to Ipsos Group S.A., a multinational market research and consulting firm with headquarters in Paris, states, “On average, globally, 80% identify as heterosexual, 3% as gay, lesbian or homosexual, 4% as bisexual, 1% as pansexual or omnisexual, 1% as asexual, 1% as “other”, and 11% don’t know or won’t say.”
However, with approximately 101 males to 100 females globally, the probablity of a woman not finding a partner is not as alarming as the fake news distributors make it to look.
Global male age compared to female
According to the Pews Research Centre, lower fertility rates and aging populations have become worldwide concerns, but the G7 nations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States – have stood out for their lower birth rates and graying of their citizens since the mid-20th century, when the United Nations first recorded this data. So, the “32% are above 66 years” does not apply to global populations such as Third World countries where more births are still being recorded.
As of the beginning of 2023 according to Countrymeters estimates, the world had 590,141,646 persons above 64 years old comprising 261,787,349 males Vs 328,342,163 females. In other words, there are more females older than 64 years, compared to males.
Verdict: The claim that there would be scarcity of hiusbands by 2023 (the current year) is untrue and therefore to be disregarded.
