Missing Unmarried Women

That unmarried individuals die at a faster rate than married individuals at all ages is well documented. Unmarried women in developing countries face particularly severe vulnerabilities, so that excess mortality faced by the unmarried is more extreme for women in these regions compared to developed countries. We provide systematic estimates of the excess female mortality faced by older unmarried women in developing regions. We place these estimates in the context of the missing women phenomenon. There are approximately 1.5 million missing women of adult age each year. We find that more than 40% of these missing women of adult age can be attributed to not being married. These estimates vary by region. In India and other parts of South Asia, 55% of the missing adult women are without a husband. For Sub-Saharan Africa, the estimates are smaller at around 35%, and for China only 13%. We show that 70% of missing unmarried women are of reproductive age and that it is the relatively high mortality rates of these young unmarried women (compared to their married counterparts) that drive this phenomenon.