India: Highest Number of Babies Born on New Year’s Day
As per a report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), over 371,500 babies were born on January 1, 2021, i.e. New Year’s Day in the world. Out of this number, India has recorded around 60,000 births, the highest number of births in any country.
Key Points
- UNICEF estimated that a total of 371,504 babies were born around the world on January 1, 2021.
- Fiji was projected to have welcomed its first baby in 2021.
- Looking at the numbers, over half of these births globally have taken place in 10 countries: China (35,615), India (59,995), Nigeria (21,439), Indonesia (12,336), Pakistan (14,161), Ethiopia (12,006), Egypt (9,455), the United States (10,312), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (8,640) and Bangladesh (9,236).
- The agency has estimated that around 140 million children will be born in the year 2021 and their average life expectancy will be about 84 years.
- In order to estimate the numbers, UNICEF used registration and nationally representative household survey data to determine the monthly and daily fractions of births in different countries.
- UNICEF will also be celebrating its 75th anniversary in the year 2021.
The UN’s children’s agency used the annual live births numbers and period life expectancy from the UN’s World Population Prospects 2019 to estimate the number of babies born on January 1, 2021, as well as the cohort life expectancy of the babies.