Map B.7 refers to the population of children aged 5 years and younger. This age group represents about 12% of the total population. This indicator can be used as an approximation of the sex ratio at birth, which is typically above 100.  This figure then decreases gradually because the mortality rate for boys is higher than that for girls. According to the National Population and Housing Census of 2005, the sex ratio of children aged 5 years and younger reported indicates that for every 101 boys there were 100 girls in 2005. As this indicator shows the sex ratio is not influenced by factors such as life expectancy, migration, wars, etc, and so it is interesting to compare this Map B.7 with the preceding Map B.6.

The map legend depicts the sex ratios in 5 different levels with a different colour for each, from the lowest to the highest.  The lowest is less than 80 boys per 100 girls, and the highest is more than 120 boys per 100 girls.

In contrast to the situation of the total population, this map is significantly more fragmented and heterogeneous as is shown by the observation that yellow, representing the middle ratio of 96:105 is not the predominant colour, but either violet or green predominate indicating a deficit of either boy or girls. The statistical reason for this should not be forgotten: in each village the share of the population younger than 5 years is already quite small. With this small sample and the normal variation of the number of boys and girls, the calculation of the sex ratio tends to produce more extreme values.  For example, if in a small village there are only 8 boys and 12 girls, the corresponding sex ratio would be 66.  We have therefore reached the limit where the disaggregation of data still has any meaning.

It is therefore meaningless to interpret single village values, even though some villages have very high or low sex ratios. It is however very significant that there is no observable consistent spatial pattern throughout the country. This indicates that there is probably little or no sex selection before birth. This also implies that the imbalances of sex ratio in Map B.6 cannot be attributed to birth but rather to other external factors.