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Popul Health Metr. 2016; 14: 11.
Published online 2016 Apr 4. doi:  [10.1186/s12963-016-0080-6]
PMCID: PMC4820865
PMID: 27051352

Erratum to: Estimation of country-specific and global prevalence of male circumcision

Following publication of the original article in Population Health Metrics [1], the authors wish to alert the reader to the following errors in male circumcision (MC) prevalence for 6 of the 237 countries and territories in Table 1.

Table 1

Percentage of circumcised males in each of the 237 countries and territories in the world*

Country/TerritoryMC %Country/TerritoryMC %Country/TerritoryMC %
Afghanistan99.8Ghana91.6Oman87.7
Albania47.7Gibraltar6Pakistan96.4
Algeria97.9Greece4.74Palau95
American Samoa95Greenland0.1Panama0.95
Andorra1.1Grenada0.3Papua New Guinea10.1
Angola57.5Guam95Paraguay0.11
Anguilla0.3Guatemala0.11Peru3.7
Antigua & Barbuda0.6Guernsey0.1Philippines91.7
Argentina2.9Guinea84.2Pitcairn Islands0.1
Armenia0.1Guinea-Bissau93.3Poland0.11
Aruba0.46Guyana12Portugal0.61
Australia58Haiti6.2Puerto Rico0.14
Austria5.8Holy See (Vatican)0.1Qatar77.5
Azerbaijan98.5Honduras0.1Romania0.34
Bahamas, The0.2Hong Kong28Russia11.8
Bahrain81.2Hungary0.78Rwanda13.3
Bangladesh93.2Iceland0.1Saint Barthelemy0.1
Barbados0.9India13.5Saint Helena, Ascens0.1
Belarus0.32Indonesia92.5Saint Kitts & Nevis0.3
Belgium22.6Iran99.7Saint Lucia0.1
Belize0.1Iraq98.9Saint Martin & Tristan0.1
Benin92.9Ireland0.93Saint Pierre & Miquel0.2
Bermuda0.8Isle of Man0.2Saint Vincent & Grena1.7
Bhutan1.0Israel91.7Samoa95
Bolivia0.11Italy2.6San Marino0.1
Bosnia & Herzegovina41.6Jamaica14Sao Tome & Principe0.1
Botswana15.1Japan9Saudi Arabia97.1
Brazil1.3Jersey0.1Senegal93.5
British Virgin Islands1.2Jordan98.8Serbia3.71
Brunei51.9Kazakhstan56.4Seychelles1.1
Bulgaria13.4Kenya91.2Sierra Leone96.1
Burkin Faso88.3Kiribati0.1Singapore14.9
Burma3.5Korea, North0.1Sint Maarten0.06
Burundi61.7Korea, South77.0Slovakia0.15
Cabo Verde0.1Kosovo Islands91.7Slovenia8.5
Cambodia3.5Kuwait86.4Solomon Islands95
Cameroon94Kyrgyzstan91.9Somalia93.5
Canada31.9Laos0.1South Africa44.7
Cayman Islands0.2Latvia0.38South Sudan23.6
Central African Republic63.0Lebanon59.7Spain6.6
Chad73.5Lesotho52Sri Lanka8.5
Chile0.21Liberia97.7Sudan39.4
China14.0Libya96.6Suriname15.9
Christmas Island0.1Liechtenstein4.8Svalbard0.1
Cocos (Keeling)95Lithuania0.2Swaziland8.2
Columbia4.2Luxembourg2.42Sweden5.1
Comoros99.4Macau0.1Switzerland5.9
Congo, Dem Rep97.2Macedonia33.9Syria92.8
Congo, Republic70Madagascar94.7Taiwan8.3
Cook Islands95Malawi21.6Tajikistan99
Costa Rica0.15Malaysia61.4Tanzania72
Cote d’Ivoire96.7Maldives98.4Thailand11.9
Croatia1.34Mali86Timor-Leste6.4
Cuba0.11Malta0.3Togo95.2
Curacao0.07Marshall Islands0.1Tokelau95
Cyprus22.7Mauritania99.2Tonga95
Czech Republic0.14Mauritius16.6Trinidad & Tobago5.8
Denmark5.3Mexico15.4Tunisia99.8
Djibouti96.5Micronesia, Fed States0.1Turkey98.6
Dominica0.2Moldova0.5Turkmenistan93.4
Dominican Repub13.7Monaco0.5Turks & Caicos Is0.1
Ecuador0.11Mongolia4.4Tuvalu95
Egypt94.7Montenegro18.5Uganda26.7
El Salvador0.11Montserrat0.1Ukraine2.3
Equatorial Guinea87Morocco99.9United Arab Emirates76
Eritrea97.2Mozambique47.4United Kingdom20.7
Estonia0.25Namibia25.5United States80.5
Ethiopia92.2Nauru95Uruguay0.62
Falkland Islands0.1Nepal4.2Uzbekistan96.5
Faroe Islands0.1Netherlands5.7Vanuatu95
Fiji55New Caledonia50Venezuela0.33
Finland0.82New Zealand33.0Vietnam0.2
France14Nicaragua0.1Virgin Islands0.55
French Polynesia78Niger95.5Wallis & Futuna0.1
Gabon99.2Nigeria98.9West Bank99.9
Gambia, The94.5Niue95Western Sahara99.6
Gaza Strip99.9Norfolk Island0.1Yemen99.0
Georgia10. 6Northern Mariana Is90Zambia21.6
Germany6.7Norway3.0Zimbabwe9.2

*The reader is referred to Additional files 1 and 2 in the supplementary material in order to understand the use of our methodology for deriving the values shown in this Table

–United States: The value for MC prevalence in the United States (US) is shown as 70.1, which is from reference 27, but this value should have been 80.5, as reported in reference 26. The figure of 70.1 is for 222,546 privately insured US males aged 1–18 years, whereas the figure of 80.5 is for 6,294 US males aged 14–59 years drawn from National Health and Nutrition Surveys by researchers at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The 80.5 figure is more representative of the overall male population in the US. As stated in the Methods section, circumcision prevalence figures for mature males across this general age range were used for all countries and territories when available. Only for Canada (infants) and Taiwan (boys aged 7–13 years) were the surveys that were available not for mature males.

–Germany: MC prevalence in Table 1 is shown as 10.9 %, but should have been 6.7 %. The former came from a nationwide survey of 8,985 males aged 1–17 (reference 82), whereas the latter is from a survey of 2,490 mature males aged 30–61 (Reference 83).

–Thailand: 11.9 % rather than 23.4 %, which arose from a calculation error.

–Australia: 85 % for males aged 16–64 (reference 36) rather than 26.6 %, which was the weighted average of these older males together with figures of 11 % for males aged 0–6 months (reference 37) and 10.9 % for newborn males (reference 38).

–Zambia: 21.6 % from 2014 data (reference 160) rather than 12.8 % from 2007 data (reference 161).

–Pitcairn Island: 0.1 % rather than 0 % owing to our decision to make 0.1 % the minimum for any country because MC is used commonly to treat foreskin-related medical conditions.

Use of these corrected figures led to estimates of 1,425,692,596 for total number of circumcised males globally based on 2015 CIA data for total males and 907,738,816 based on United Nations and CIA data. MC prevalence was calculated as 39.0 % (95 % CI: 33.7, 44.3) and 37.1 % (95 % CI: 31.8, 42.4), using 2015 CIA data for sex ratio and total population in 237 countries and territories globally and on 2015 United Nations figures for males aged 15–64 years, respectively.

The use of the corrected figures does not alter our rounded estimate for global MC prevalence of 37–39 %.

The corrected Table 1 appears below. Additional files 1, 2 and 3 referred to below are available for this article on-line.

Additional files

Additional file 1:(49K, xlsx)

This spreadsheet provides data from published surveys on MC prevalence in all countries for which such studies have been conducted. (XLSX 49 kb)

Additional file 2:(30K, xlsx)

This spreadsheet shows data for number of males using CIA data and estimates of number of circumcised males in all 237 countries and territories in the world, as well as basis for the estimate and MC percentage for each. (XLSX 29 kb)

Additional file 3:(32K, xlsx)

This spreadsheet shows data for number of males using UN data for all but 45 countries and territories in the world and estimates of number of circumcised males in all but these 45, as well as basis for the estimate and MC percentage for each. (XLSX 31 kb)

Footnotes

The online version of the original article can be found under doi:10.1186/s12963-016-0073-5.

Reference

1. Morris BJ, Wamai RG, Henebeng EB, Tobian AAR, Klausner JD, Banerjee J, Hankins CA. Estimation of country-specific and global prevalence of male circumcision. Popul Health Metr. 2016;14:4. doi: 10.1186/s12963-016-0073-5. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [CrossRef]

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