(Yicai Global) May 11 -- Men still outnumber women in China, posing an ever-increasing challenge for those of them hoping to get hitched, according to experts.

Though the gender balance continues to improve, there are still 34.9 million more men than women in the country, according to population figures the National Bureau of Statistics released today.

The population now stands at 1.412 billion. There are 723 million men, accounting for 51.24 percent of the total, and 688 million women, accounting for 48.76 percent. The overall sex ratio is 105.07. There are 11.3 more boys for every 100 girls born, a 6.8 drop in the sex ratio at birth from 2010, according to the data.

The sex ratio at birth refers to the number of boys born alive per 100 girls born alive. The normal value is 103 to 107. According to the 1982 National Fertility Survey, China’s sex ratio at birth was 107.2. It was 116.9 and 118.6, respectively, in the fourth and fifth national census in 1990 and 2000. In the China Statistical Yearbook 2007, the figure reached 125.48.

The ratio remains relatively high, Yuan Xin, a professor at the Institute of Population and Development of Nankai University’s School of Finance, told Yicai Global. The race to get married and the costs entailed will increase as the generation with the most-skewed gender ratio at birth enters the age of marriage and child-bearing, he said.

The share of the population that is unmarried or divorced has also grown, said Yuan, who is also vice president of the China Population Association.

One man in five of marriage and childbearing age will not be able to find a spouse, according to another expert.

Because of this problem, governments at all levels in China have introduced measures to ban non-medical fetal gender identification and sex-selective abortions. But it still remains a great challenge for people in this gender-imbalance group, the expert noted.

Editor: Peter Thomas