New Year’s Babies: Over 35,000 children will be born in China on New Year’s Day - UNICEF

BEIJING, 1 January 2021 – An estimated 35,615 babies will be born in China on New Year’s Day, according to UNICEF.

As the calendar turns to 2021, UNICEF is again celebrating the new lives being brought into the world on January 1. Fiji in the Pacific will welcome 2021’s first baby. The United States, 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 Democratic Republic of the Congo (8,640)

Chinese babies will account for nearly 9.6 per cent of the estimated 371,504 babies to be born on New Year’s Day.

 “This has been a difficult year for the world, and there is perhaps no better way to turn the page than to welcome new young lives into the world,” said Cynthia McCaffrey, UNICEF Representative to China. “Now is more important than ever to build a better world. Children born today will inherit the world we begin to building for them.”

2021 marks the 75^th anniversary of UNICEF. Over the course of the year, UNICEF and its partners will be commemorating the anniversary with events and announcements celebrating three-quarters of a century of protecting children from conflict, disease and exclusion and championing their right to survival, health and education.

Today, as the world faces unprecedented challenges caused by the pandemic, economic slowdown, rising poverty and inequality, we are reminded that the need for UNICEF’s work is as great as ever.

“There is no more appropriate year than this—the year of UNICEF’s 75^th Anniversary—to renew our commitment to each other, and to the young lives who will inherit the world we leave,” said McCaffrey. “2021 will be a critical year for children and UNICEF’s delivering results for three-quarter’s of a century for children around the world is a testament to what we can accomplish when working together.”

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Notes to Editors

For complete estimates on births for 236 countries and territories, click here.

For the estimates, UNICEF used vital registration and nationally representative household survey data to estimate the monthly and daily fractions of births in countries. UNICEF used the annual live births numbers and period life expectancy from the latest revision of the UN’s World Population Prospects (2019) to estimate the babies born on 1 January 2021 and their cohort life expectancy.

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