UNICEF estimates that around 371,504 babies were born across the globe on New Year’s Day.
The humanitarian aid organisation traditionally seeks to highlight and celebrate the first births of the year, beginning with the first child born, usually in Fiji or elsewhere in the South Pacific, and ending with the last baby born, typically in the United States.
Because of the global population spread, more than half of all the first births of 2021were spread across ten of its most populous countries, with the breakdown of newborns estimated by UNICEF to be as follows:
In the UK, UNICEF estimated that 2,054 children were born in the UK on the first day of the year, representing 0.5% of babies born across the globe. While, further figures suggest that around 140 million children will be born in 2021 and, on average, each one can expect to live to the age of 84.
UNICEF said that, as is to be expected after such a challenging and unprecedented year, the children born on the first day of 2021 will join a world that is experiencing profound changes.
The organisation, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2021, said that the New Year births should be seen as an “opportunity to reimagine” the world. As such, it called for everyone to join forces to “build a fairer, safer, healthier world for children”.
With children being born into a world currently being shaped by the coronavirus global health pandemic, and the impact of poverty, climate change, deepening inequality and increasing political polarisation, UNICEF will perhaps be as important as ever in ensuring that as few children as possible suffer as a result of associated conflicts, diseases and adverse impacts on health and education.