This enormous disparity is a result of nearly two decades of sex selection that has thrown the country’s demography out of balance. The phenomenon began in the mid-80s with the advent of ultra sound technology.

For the first time, soon-to-be parents could identify the sex of their child in the womb. As a consequence of strict one-child-per-family laws, and Asia’s not-so-secret cultural preference for males, many female fetuses were aborted in favor of future attempts at producing a boy. By 2005, China’s ratio was 121 boys for every 100 girls.

A new study by the Journal of the Canadian Medical Association sees this as a recipe for disaster. In Chinese culture, marriage is “virtually universal” and seen as the avenue to achieve “social status and acceptance.”

This overabundance of young men will greatly inhibit a huge swath of China’s population from partaking in the traditional social order.

Furthermore, less marriages mean less children overall, which, although reducing China’s growth, could affect China’s economic future as a decreasing working population will be unable to meet the needs of an increasingly disproportionate number of elderly.

Despite dire warnings, there is a sliver of good news for the future. China is scaling back its one-child policy in some areas and conducting a public awareness campaign about sex selection, including discussions to end ultrasound usage for the purposes of abortion.

These changes come too late, however, for this generation, as a huge number of Chinese males of marriageable age will be unable to find a bride.