An estimated 4.17 billion men and boys live on Earth in 2026, roughly 42 million more than the global female population. That surplus exists almost entirely because of two countries. China’s national sex ratio stood at about 104.1 males per 100 females in 2024, and India’s population has historically carried a comparable imbalance.
Remove those two countries from the count and the rest of the world tilts female, which means the “global male majority” reported in most population statistics is really a story about Asia’s two demographic giants rather than a universal pattern.
That single correction reframes almost everything else in this article. Male population share varies enormously by age, country and migration status, and a country can simultaneously have “too many men” in one age group and “too few men” in another.
How Many Men Are There in the World?
Carrying UN World Population Prospects (WPP) 2024 medium-variant trend lines forward to 2026 puts the global male population at approximately 4.17 billion, against roughly 4.13 billion females, out of a total population of about 8.29 billion as of late August 2026. That works out to a male share of about 50.26 percent and a global sex ratio of roughly 101 males per 100 females.
This male-majority world is a relatively recent condition. WPP data show the crossover happened around 1971; before that, the world had more women than men for as far back as reliable estimates extend. The male surplus grew for several decades afterward, peaking near 101.4 males per 100 females around 2016, before beginning a very slow narrowing as the age structure of the two largest countries shifts toward older cohorts where women predominate.
Key Facts
| Metric | Figure | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Global male population | 4.17 billion | 2026 |
| Male share of world population | 50.26% | 2026 |
| Global sex ratio | 101.0 males per 100 females | 2026 |
| China’s national sex ratio | 104.1 males per 100 females | 2024 |
| Male life expectancy at birth, global | approximately 71 years | 2024 |
| Sex ratio at birth, global average | 105 to 107 boys per 100 girls | ongoing |
| China’s sex ratio at birth | approximately 110 boys per 100 girls | 2023 |
Sources: UN DESA World Population Prospects 2024 Revision; National Bureau of Statistics of China; Statista compilations of UN DESA data.
Which Countries Have the Largest Male Populations?
India holds the largest male population of any country, having overtaken China’s total population in 2023. As with the female rankings, absolute size and population share tell different stories.
Largest Male Populations by Country
| Rank | Country | Male Population (approx., 2026) | National Sex Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | India | 747.5 million | ~104.5 |
| 2 | China | 715.9 million | ~103.1 |
| 3 | United States | 171.4 million | ~98.7 |
| 4 | Indonesia | 141.7 million | ~98.9 |
| 5 | Pakistan | 123.3 million | ~96.3 |
| 6 | Nigeria | 113.0 million | ~94.4 |
| 7 | Brazil | 103.4 million | ~95.2 |
| 8 | Bangladesh | 83.2 million | ~92.0 |
| 9 | Russia | 67.9 million | ~88.3 |
| 10 | Ethiopia | 62.8 million | ~90.6 |
The table already shows the pattern that defines this topic: only two of the ten most populous countries, India and China, have more men than women overall. The other eight, including three of the four largest by total population outside Asia, have female majorities despite contributing heavily to the world’s male population in absolute terms.
Where Men Outnumber Women
Sex Ratio at Birth
The natural sex ratio at birth for any human population, absent interference, falls in a narrow band of roughly 105 to 107 boys per 100 girls. That male-tilted starting point is universal and biological, reflecting slightly higher rates of male conception and fetal loss patterns that still leave more boys born than girls.
China’s sex ratio at birth has run well above that natural band for decades, measured at approximately 110 boys per 100 girls in 2023, the most skewed ratio of any large country, a legacy of strong son preference combined with the fertility restrictions of the one-child era. The imbalance is not uniform within China: Statista’s compilation of National Bureau of Statistics data shows Hainan province at roughly 113 men per 100 women in 2024 against just under 97 in Liaoning, illustrating how much a single national figure can mask.
India’s sex ratio has historically run high as well, though the picture has become genuinely contested in recent years. India’s 2011 census recorded 940 females per 1,000 males nationally, equivalent to about 106.4 males per 100 females, but subsequent National Family Health Survey rounds have reported figures suggesting a narrowing gap in the resident population, even as sex ratio at birth for recent years remains skewed male in several northern states such as Haryana. Because the next full census result was not yet available at the time of writing, any current national figure for India should be treated as an estimate pending confirmation, and the survey-based and census-based numbers should not be quoted interchangeably as if they measure the same thing.
Working Age Populations
Labor migration reshapes the working-age male share of a population more dramatically than any other single factor. Gulf states built their economies around large male migrant labor forces, and the demographic effect is extreme. UNDP data from the early 2000s already showed the United Arab Emirates with a sex ratio of 195 males per 100 females, Qatar at 184, Kuwait at 139 and Bahrain at 135, driven overwhelmingly by male workers in construction, transport and services recruited from South Asia and the Philippines. More recent Statista projections show the pattern persisting, if moderating slightly, through the 2020s as some Gulf economies diversify their labor recruitment.
The reverse effect shows up in labor-exporting countries and regions with high rates of male out-migration, where the resident population skews more female than fertility and mortality alone would predict.
Older Men
Male representation declines steadily after middle age almost everywhere, the mirror image of the pattern documented in the companion analysis of the global female population. Global male life expectancy at birth was approximately 71 years in 2024, against roughly 76 years for women, a gap of about five years driven by a combination of biological factors and behavioral risk differences, including higher rates of smoking, alcohol use, occupational injury and cardiovascular disease among men in most countries.
China’s own data illustrate the life course reversal clearly: the sex ratio disparity that peaks at 115.3 males per 100 females in the 15 to 19 age group, a legacy of birth-year sex selection, inverts by the time the same cohorts reach their 60s, where adult mortality is markedly higher for men than for women.
Why Male and Female Population Patterns Differ
Four mechanisms, working in combination, explain most of the variation documented above:
- Sex ratio at birth. A universal, biologically driven male surplus at birth is amplified in specific countries, chiefly China and, to a lesser and now disputed extent, India, by sustained son preference.
- Mortality differences. Men face higher mortality risk than women at almost every adult age, a pattern strong enough to fully reverse the birth-year male surplus by old age.
- Labor migration. This is the dominant driver of the most extreme sex ratios recorded anywhere. Gulf labor-importing economies have historically posted sex ratios two to three times the global average, entirely because of male migrant labor, not fertility or mortality.
- Historical shocks. Wars and mass mortality events depress a country’s male population for generations. Russia’s sex ratio of about 88 males per 100 females reflects both this history, dating to World War II, and a persistent, unusually large modern gap in adult male mortality.
Male Population Trends Over Time
The world’s male population has grown from roughly 1.26 billion in 1950 to about 4.17 billion in 2026, more than tripling over 76 years, a growth rate essentially identical to that of the female population over the same period. What has changed is the internal composition: the male population of 1950 was overwhelmingly young, reflecting high fertility and shorter life expectancy, while the male population of 2026 includes a far larger share of adults over 60, a shift most advanced in China, which is now aging faster than almost any large population in history following decades of below-replacement fertility.
What the Male Population May Look Like in 2050 and 2100
WPP 2024 projects several rank changes among the world’s most populous countries by 2050 that will directly affect the geography of the global male population. China’s total population, and with it its very large male population, is projected to decline substantially by mid-century as its below-replacement fertility rate compounds. Nigeria is projected to overtake the United States to become the world’s third most populous country by around 2050, meaningfully shifting the geographic center of the global male population toward Sub-Saharan Africa. India is projected to keep growing until it peaks near 1.7 billion around 2064, meaning its male population, already the world’s largest, will keep expanding for decades even under the UN’s medium-fertility assumptions.
These are projections built on assumed future fertility, mortality and migration paths, not guaranteed outcomes. The UN publishes low and high variants alongside its medium projection specifically because actual fertility and migration trends can and do diverge from the central assumption.
What a Changing Male Population Means
A male population that is aging rapidly in China and parts of Europe, while still growing quickly in India, Nigeria and much of Sub-Saharan Africa, creates sharply different planning demands by region. Countries with aging male populations face rising demand for late-life healthcare that must account for men’s historically shorter and often less healthy old age relative to women’s, along with labor market pressure as large male cohorts exit the workforce faster than younger cohorts can replace them.
Countries with young, still-growing male populations, by contrast, face the opposite planning challenge: absorbing large annual cohorts of working-age men into education and labor markets fast enough to avoid youth unemployment, a challenge that intersects directly with the demographic dividend debate common in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Gulf labor-importing states occupy a distinct category entirely. Their extreme sex ratios are a policy and economic outcome, tied to labor recruitment practices, rather than a demographic trend produced by fertility or mortality, and they can shift quickly if labor demand or recruitment patterns change, unlike the slower-moving trends elsewhere in this article.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How many men are there in the world?
Approximately 4.17 billion in 2026, or about 50.26 percent of the global population of roughly 8.29 billion, based on UN World Population Prospects 2024 trend data.
2. Which country has the most men?
India, with an estimated 747.5 million men and boys in 2026, followed by China at approximately 715.9 million.
3. Why do some countries have more men than women?
Mainly because of three factors that can act independently or together: elevated sex ratios at birth, historically driven in specific countries by son preference; large male labor migration flows, especially into Gulf economies; and, in a small number of countries, historical mass-mortality events affecting one sex more than the other.
4. Are there more boys or girls born globally?
More boys. The natural human sex ratio at birth is approximately 105 to 107 boys per 100 girls worldwide, and several countries, most notably China, have historically recorded ratios well above that natural range.
5. Which country has the highest male to female ratio?
Gulf labor-importing states have recorded the most extreme ratios on record, with the United Arab Emirates measured at 195 males per 100 females and Qatar at 184 in UNDP’s early-2000s data, driven by male migrant labor rather than fertility or mortality patterns.
6. Does China still have more men than women?
Yes. China’s national sex ratio was approximately 104.1 males per 100 females in 2024, though the imbalance is far from uniform, ranging from about 113 in Hainan province to under 97 in Liaoning.
7. Is India’s sex ratio still skewed toward men?
The evidence is mixed and depends on the data source. India’s 2011 census recorded roughly 106.4 males per 100 females nationally, but subsequent household surveys have suggested a narrower gap in the resident population; a definitive current national figure requires the next full census.
8. Why do men have shorter life expectancy than women?
A combination of biological and behavioral factors, including higher rates of cardiovascular disease, smoking, alcohol-related mortality and occupational and accidental injury among men in most countries, produces a global life expectancy gap of roughly five years as of 2024.
9. Will the male population keep growing faster than the female population?
Not indefinitely. The global male surplus has been narrowing slowly since peaking around 2016, as the world’s largest male-majority countries, especially China, age and as global mortality patterns continue to favor female survival at older ages.
10. Which countries will have the largest male populations in 2050?
India is projected to remain first, its male population still growing toward the country’s overall population peak near 1.7 billion around 2064. China’s male population is projected to shrink as its total population declines, while Nigeria’s is projected to grow enough to push the country past the United States into third place in total population by around 2050.
Sources
- United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Population Prospects 2024 Revision, Summary of Results
- National Bureau of Statistics of China, sex ratio by province and by age group, 2023-2024, via Statista
- United Nations Development Programme, Arab Human Development Report 2002, regional sex ratio data
- Government of India, Census of India 2011, sex ratio tables
- StatisticsTimes.com and PopulationPyramids.org, World Population Prospects 2024-based country rankings, 2026 estimates
- Statista, sex ratio projections for the United Arab Emirates, sourced from UN DES
