Mostly Right, But Off by One: India's 2011 Child Sex Ratio Was 918, Not 919

The claim that India's child sex ratio dropped from 945 in 1991 to 919 in 2011 is almost correct — but not quite. The 1991 figure is accurate, while the 2011 number is off by one. It's a small error, but it's still an error in an official statistic.

According to the Census of India, run by the Office of the Registrar General, the child sex ratio — measuring girls aged 0 to 6 per 1000 boys — stood at 945 in 1991. By 2001 it had dropped to 927, and by 2011 it had fallen further to 918. That last number, 918, is what the official record shows — not 919.

This isn't a matter of interpretation. UNICEF India and India's own Ministry of Women and Child Development both cite 918 in their official documents, including materials tied to the government's Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign launched specifically to address this crisis. Three independent sources all land on the same number.

To be fair to the claim: the underlying story it tells is real and serious. India's child sex ratio has been falling for decades — from 976 in 1961 to 918 in 2011 — driven by sex-selective abortions and, in some cases, female infanticide. This is a documented, ongoing crisis. The claim gets the big picture right. It just fumbles the precise 2011 figure.

This kind of near-miss misinformation is worth flagging precisely because it wraps a real problem in a slightly wrong number. When the specific figures get challenged, it can distract from the genuine issue — or give bad-faith actors a hook to dismiss the whole concern. Always check statistics against the original Census of India tables or UNICEF reports before sharing.