Nearly 60,000 babies in India and a total of 3.7 crore worldwide are expected to be born on the New Year’s Day, according to the UNICEF.
Fiji in the Pacific will welcome 2021’s first baby and the United States will welcome its last.
Globally, over half of these births are estimated to take place in 10 countries — India (59,995), China (35,615), Nigeria (21,439), Pakistan (14,161), Indonesia (12,336), Ethiopia (12,006), the United States (10,312), Egypt (9,455), Bangladesh (9,236) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (8,640), according to a press statement from the UNICEF.
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In total, an estimated 140 million children will be born in 2021. Their average life expectancy is expected to be 84 years. The life expectancy for Indian babies will be 80.9 years.
“Anticipating and addressing the potential impact of the pandemic is crucial if we are to prevent a roll back of gains made in saving the lives of children. The pandemic has shown us the need for systems and policies to be in place to protect people all the time, not just in the event of a crisis. Under its ‘Reimagine’ campaign, the UNICEF appeals to governments, private sector entities, donors and all partners to join hands and lay the groundwork for building back a better world, to assure every child’s right to survive and thrive is protected and promoted at all times,” said UNICEF India Country Representative Yasmin Ali Haque.
The UNICEF used vital registration and nationally representative household survey data to estimate the monthly and daily fractions of births in countries and annual live births numbers and period life expectancy from the U.N.’s World Population Prospects (2019) to estimate the babies born on January 1, 2021, and their life expectancy.
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