The sex ratio of 15-year-olds in 2005 was not far from the sex ratio at birth in 1990.

ECONOMIST: Gendercide

The 2005 "mini-census" reported that the sex ratio at birth, expressed as the number of boys per 100 girls, was 119--when the global average was somewhere between 103 to 106.

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On the basis of the national sample surveys (NSS), they calculate that India's sex ratio at birth swung from 924 females per 1, 000 males in 2004-05 to 977 in 2011, a stunning turnaround in favour of girls.

ECONOMIST: Banyan

The figures are not strictly comparable, because sample surveys show the sex ratio at birth, whereas the census gives it among infants up to the age of six.

ECONOMIST: India's skewed sex ratio: Seven brothers | The

One of the few to have succeeded in ending the practice is South Korea, where the sex ratio at birth peaked in 1990 and has since fallen to near-normal levels.

ECONOMIST: Banyan