Which country has the highest male-to-female ratio?

Qatar has the highest male-to-female ratio of any country, with about 3.3 males for every female in recent estimates. That makes its population structure an extreme global outlier.

The main reason is migration. Qatar’s rapid energy-driven development brought in a very large expatriate workforce, particularly men employed in construction, infrastructure, transport, and other industries. These workers substantially increased the male population without producing a comparable increase in the number of women.

This is not a biological pattern or a birth-rate phenomenon. Human populations normally have a sex ratio close to balance, with slightly more boys than girls born. Qatar’s unusually high total ratio is instead driven mainly by the age and sex composition of its foreign-worker population.

The ratio can vary with the year, dataset, and whether the calculation covers citizens, residents, or the total population. Even so, Qatar remains the standard answer for the overall male-to-female ratio. The United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Bahrain also rank unusually high, but below Qatar.