Where Men Outnumber Women — and Where It’s the Opposite: The Global Map, Ranked

There are roughly 40 million more men than women walking the planet right now. Yet that headline number hides a much stranger reality — one that flips completely depending on where you look and how old people are.

Globally, births skew slightly male. But biology, war, migration, and life expectancy all pull the balance in different directions over time. By the time people reach age 65 and older, the picture reverses hard: about 56% of that group is female, because women, on average, simply live longer than men.

Zoom in on individual countries and the gaps get dramatic. Some nations have well over twice as many men as women. Others tilt sharply female. Here’s where the imbalances are most extreme — and the surprising reasons behind them — based on data from World Population Review, as compiled by Visual Capitalist.

The Most Male-Heavy Countries Are All in One Region

If you’re looking for the world’s biggest gender gaps favoring men, head to the Persian Gulf. Middle Eastern nations dominate the top of the list, and the reason comes down almost entirely to labor migration.

Countries like Qatar have spent years building out construction, energy, and infrastructure using enormous numbers of temporary foreign workers — the vast majority of them men. In Qatar’s case, migrant workers make up more than 85% of the entire population. The result is a jaw-dropping ratio of 243.7 men for every 100 women.

The rest of the region follows a similar pattern, with imported male labor forces skewing their populations well beyond anything you’d see naturally.

Top 5 countries/regions with the most men per 100 women:

Migration Tilts Other Places the Other Way

Here’s the twist: the same force that makes the Gulf so male-heavy makes other places distinctly female-heavy.

In regions like Macau and Hong Kong, women are recruited for roles such as domestic work, drawing large numbers of women into the local population. But migration isn’t the whole story. Hong Kong is also aging fast — and since women outlive men, older age groups tilt heavily female. Only about 10% of Hong Kong’s population is young, while roughly 25% is elderly, with women making up an outsized share of that senior group.

Then there’s the long shadow of history. Former Soviet states show up again and again on the female-majority list. Back in 1950, the Soviet Union had just 77 men for every 100 women, largely due to staggering male losses in World War II. The population partly rebounded by the 1990s, but shorter male life expectancy, wartime losses, and high rates of alcoholism among men have kept the imbalance alive. Today, former Soviet states occupy seven of the top 12 spots for countries with more women than men.

Top 5 countries/regions with the most women (fewest men per 100 women):

Where Does the United States Land?

The U.S. tips slightly male — but barely. There are 101 men for every 100 women, just a hair under the global average of 101.2.

The national number, though, papers over some wild state-to-state swings.

Alaska is the most male state in the country, at 110.5 men per 100 women. That’s high enough that, if Alaska were its own nation, it would crack the global top 15 — edging out Greenland, which currently sits 15th at 110.2. The likely driver? Male-dominated industries like fishing and logging.

At the opposite end, Delaware has the most women relative to men, with just 94.1 men per 100 women. Mississippi and Alabama aren’t far behind, at 94.2 and 94.3 respectively.

The takeaway: a country’s gender balance says less about biology than it does about who’s moving in, who’s living longer, and what the region lived through decades ago.

By Marcus Ellery | World & Society

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