Boys Preferred Over Girls, Poll Shows

July 6, 2007 -- People in the U.S. show a slight baby gender preference for having a boy instead of a girl if they were only able to have one child.

That's according to a new Gallup poll on baby gender preferences.

The telephone poll, conducted in June, included about 1,000 U.S. adults. They were asked: "Suppose you could only have one child. Would you prefer that it be a boy or a girl?"

Here are the participants' baby gender preferences:

• Boy: 37%
• Girl: 28%
• Either/doesn't matter: 26%
• Not sure/no opinion: 9%

The "either/doesn't matter" choice wasn't mentioned as an option by the pollsters. But more than a quarter of the participants expressed that view anyway.

Why the Baby Gender Preference?

Participants also heard a list of possible reasons for their baby gender preference.

Among those who favored boys, the top reasons were that men can relate to boys better than to girls, boys can carry on the family name, and boys are easier to raise.

Among those who favored girls, the leading explanations were that mothers can have closer relationships with daughters, they already had one or more daughters, and that girls are easier to raise than boys.

Men were more likely than women to prefer boys, but women didn't show a similar preference for girls, according to Gallup.

The Gallup baby gender poll began in 1941 and has been conducted occasionally over the last 66 years. Throughout that time, participants have consistently favored boys over girls, given the hypothetical one-child-only limit, though the strength of that preference has waxed and waned over the years.

• If you already have a child, will you try again for the other gender? Join the discussion on WebMD's Pregnancy: 3rd Trimester message board.