Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 July 2008
To investigate the effect of social class on the secondary sex ratio, atotal of 7·2 million births in the period 1975–78 in Japan has been tabulated according to the occupation of the head of the household, paternal and maternal ages and birth order. Although the variation in the sex ratio among occupational classes is not statistically significant, the changes observed are compatible with those reported by other authors. Multipleregression analysis revealed that the association of birth order and paternal age with the sexratio is relatively consistent among different occupational classes, while that of maternal age varies substantially among occupational groups, a significant negative regression on maternal age being observed in agricultural workers.