Females dominate live births in Guimaras with 8.88% gender gap

More females were born in Guimaras in the first four months of 2022, according to the Decentralized Vital Statistics System (DVSS) of Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Registered live births during the first quarter (Q1) of 2022 in Guimaras totaled 1,014, higher by 1.91 percent against 995 live births in Q1 2021.

Most of the livebirths were females with a sex ratio of 84 males for every 100 female live births, and a gender gap of 8.88 percent.

Data revealed that in Q1 2022, the recorded 462 male births increased by 3.12 percent from the 448 registered male births in Q1 2021. (See Table 1)

“Female births at 552 in Q1 2022 also grew by 0.91 percent from 547 female births in Q1 of the previous year”, Provincial Statistics Officer Nelida B. Losare said.

Losare also expounded that for Q1 2022, out of 1,014 total registered live births, 54.44 percent, or 552 females, and 45.56 percent, or 462 males, translating a gender gap of 8.88 percent, or a sex ratio of 84 male births for every 100 females. (See Figure 1)

Comparing births occurrences in Q1 2022 per Municipality, Jordan recorded the highest number of live births at 651 individuals, 340 (52.23%) were females, and 311 (47.77%) were males; followed by the municipality of Buenavista with only 204 total registered live births, 120 (58.82%) were females, and 84 (41.18%) were males. (See Figure 2)

“Nueva Valencia has a total of 151 registered live births, 88 (58.27%) were females, and 63 (42.72%) were males. Sibunag has six (6) registered live births, both sexes recorded three (3) births, and the lowest recorded live births in Q1 2022 was in San Lorenzo with only one (1) live birth each for male and female”, Losare said.

Losare also expounded that Buenavista municipality displayed a decreasing livebirth record for the first three (3) months of 2022. Contrary to the birth record in Nueva Valencia which demonstrated an increasing pattern, doubling the number of births each month on average from 23 in January to 42 in February and 86 registered live births in March. (See Figure 3).

“The municipality of Jordan showed erratic trends, 217 in January to a low of 168 in February and picked up in March with 266 live births”, Losare said.

Losare also highlighted that, out of six (6) total births for the municipality of Sibunag, four (4) of them were from March, two (2) were from February, and no record of births for January. San Lorenzo municipality recorded one (1) both for January and February. (See Figure 3)

Meanwhile, DVSS results showed that in Q1 2022, a total of 485 live births were attended by traditional Hilot or unlicensed Midwives while 478 live births were attended by Physicians (Figure 4).

Registered live births featured in this article include late registration of senior citizens whose birth was attended before by traditional Hilot.

“Midwives attended 36 live births, more than double the combined numbers assisted by Others and Not Stated with 8 and 7 live births, respectively. No record shows where Nurse served as the attendant at birth in the Province of Guimaras for Qq1 2022”, Losare said.