Life
These Countries Are Chock Full Of Ladies
Every few days — usually after being forced to endure a painful round of mansplaining from some stranger (I'm lookin' at you, dude who "warned" me not to give money to homeless people last week) — I'm overcome by the urge to pack my bags and move to whichever country has the most women. In the interest of full disclosure, I should admit that I originally wanted to colonize a deserted tropical island and populate it strictly with lesbians and fellow bisexuals, but I'm told that plan is "creepy" and "cult-like." (Straight people, amiright? No? OK, fine.) I'll admit it's a little unorthodox, but I maintain that I'm on to something.
Fortunately, my backup plan just got a little closer to becoming reality. Recently, the United Nations' Department of Economic and Social Affairs published information on the current world population, from the population growth rate (1.2 percent) to the median age in various areas across the world (38.7 years for North America). It's cool stuff, but it's about to get a lot cooler. Are you ready for this? Hold on to your panties, folks: The UN also thought to rank countries by gender, which means that you can now plan your international travels based on how few (or how many, no judgment here) men you want to deal with. Let's take a look at the top 10 countries for both men and women, as handily compiled by the Independent:
Top 10 Countries With The Most Women
- Martinique (118.3 women per 100 men)
- Latvia (118.0)
- Lithuania (117.2)
- Curacao (116.8)
- Guadeloupe (116.2)
- Ukraine (115.9)
- Armenia (115.6)
- Russian Federation (115.3)
- Belarus (115.2)
- Estonia (113.7)
Top 10 Countries With The Most Men
- United Arab Emirates (274.0 men per 100 women)
- Qatar (265.5)
- Oman (197.0)
- Bahrain (163.0)
- Saudi Arabia (130.1)
- Kuwait (128.2)
- Bhutan (116.1)
- Western Sahara (110.1)
- India (107.6)
- Afghanistan (106.5)
As you may have noticed, there are clear trends among the distribution of men and women. Countries in the Middle East and parts of Asia have markedly more men than women, while Eastern Europe appears to be home to more women. The Independent attributes this to "conflict and cultural influence," which basically means this: In any given society, civil unrest and war result in more male deaths, while women tend to die of indirect causes once that conflict is resolved. Because of their locations, Eastern European countries like Latvia and Lithuania are frequently drawn into deadly conflicts with neighboring countries like Ukraine and Russia, which could account for their high proportion of women.
Despite what you might think, though, having a high population of women doesn't necessarily indicate less discrimination of women. The countries that are often voted Best for Women, such as Iceland, Norway, and Finland, are generally located in Northern Europe. The United States, if you're wondering, doesn't usually fair too well in these types of rankings. When it comes to issues like paid maternity leave and wage equality, for example, American women significantly lag behind the rest of the world.
Hmm... so yeah, as it turns out, it looks like my plan to live in a country full of women might not be the best idea after all. Just because a bunch of women live in an area doesn't mean the political or cultural climate is necessarily set up to make life easy. In that case, looks like it's back to good old Plan A, for which I will now be accepting applications. Tropical lesbian colony, here I come!
Images: Giphy (3)
