New research: Moms keep going until they have a girl!

The following is from MyHeritage.

Research by global family network MyHeritage.com shows offspring of the same gender are a key factor for families deciding to have more children

New York, USA and Tel Aviv, Israel – April 5 2011 - MyHeritage.com, the most popular family network on the web, today announced  a result of its global family research – indicating that a key driver of large families is the desire to produce offspring of different genders. The most profound finding for the US market was that the number of families with 2 boys who continue to have children was almost 25% higher than families who already have a boy and a girl and decide to grow their family. This indicates a strong will amongst parents to produce a girl. The findings were based on worldwide family tree data of more than 600,000 families.

The research, one of the first of its kind to examine such family dynamics, is consistent with a long-standing myth that many women want to have a girl, and that many families ‘keep going’ until they have children of both genders. World-famous celebrity couple, David and Victoria Beckham, fall into the category of 15.3% of families worldwide with 3 boys who choose to have another child – 22.4% higher than families with 3 children of mixed gender who continue to reproduce.

Data for families with 2 or 3 girls also showed that there was a significant difference in those continuing to have children, compared to same sized families with mixed gender children - possibly driven by the desire to produce a boy. These global differences were 15% and 12.8% higher for families with 2 and 3 girls respectively, and 19.6% and 17.2% higher respectively for families in the USA.

“People often ask expectant mothers if they’re ‘hoping for a girl this time?’”, said Laurence Harris, UK Genealogy Manager for MyHeritage.com. “Up until now this has simply been an innocent and light hearted presumption if they have only boys. Now we can show that in many cases it’s true! Our phenomenal growth throughout the past few years has seen over 55 million people register as users of MyHeritage.com, and the creation of more than 17 million family trees by our users. This gigantic family data set provides us with the building block for the world’s Family Graph – complete with fascinating insights into factors shaping the contemporary and historic make-up of a family.”

The findings were based on analyzing worldwide family tree data from over 600,000 families, who bore at least 2 and 4 children from 1990 until 2010. For additional information on the statistical findings visit the MyHeritage.com blog (http://blog.myheritage.com/2011/04/global-research-pink-or-blue-does-a-babys-gender-matter/).

MyHeritage.com is the leading online destination to explore family history and keep in touch with loved ones. Home to over 55 million registered users and 17 million family trees with information on more than 720 million people – MyHeritage.com is building the world’s Family Graph.

About MyHeritage.com: MyHeritage.com is the most popular family network on the web. Millions of families around the world enjoy having a free and private place to explore family history and keep in touch. With all family information stored in a secure site, MyHeritage.com is the ideal place to share family photos, and celebrate and preserve special family moments. MyHeritage.com’s Smart Matching™ technology empowers users with an exciting and innovative way to find relatives and explore their family history. With 720 million profiles, 17 million family trees and available in 36 languages, MyHeritage.com is uniting families worldwide. For more information please visit www.myheritage.com