LONDON, 1 January 2021 – An estimated 2,054 babies will be born in the UK on New Year’s Day, according to UNICEF.

An estimated 371,504 babies will be born around the world on New Year’s Day. 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).

Babies born in the UK will account for 0.5 per cent of the estimated 371,504 babies to be born on New Year’s Day. Their average life expectancy is expected to be 100.3 years.

Unicef UK’s Interim Executive Director, Steven Waugh, said: “This has been a difficult year for all of us, and there is perhaps no better way to turn the page than to welcome new young lives into the world.

“With the challenges of 2020 behind us, and the opportunities of 2021 before us, now is the time to begin to build a better world for children. Children born today will inherit the world we begin to build for them—today.”

2021 also marks the 75^th anniversary of UNICEF. Over the course of the year, UNICEF will be commemorating the anniversary to celebrate three-quarters of a century of protecting children from conflict, disease and exclusion and championing their right to survival, health and education – all over the world.

The coronavirus pandemic is the biggest and most urgent global crisis children have faced since World War Two.

Children’s lives are being upended. Their support systems ripped away, their borders closed, their educations lost, their food supply cut off.

Unicef UK’s Interim Executive Director, Steven Waugh, said: “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.

“2021 will be a critical year for children, but UNICEF’s three-quarters of a century of delivering results for children around the world are a testament to what we can accomplish together.”

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Notes to Editors

*Data on baby names compiled by Dr. I. M. Nick of the American Name Society. Countries and territories included based on availability of statistical data compiled and released by regional or national governmental agencies.

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.

To download photos to accompany this story, visit here.

For more information, please contact:

Unicef UK Media Team, 0207 375 6030, [email protected]

About Unicef

Unicef is the world’s leading organisation for children, promoting the rights and wellbeing of every child, in everything we do. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere.

Unicef UK raises funds to protect children in danger, transform their lives and build a safer world for tomorrow’s children. As a registered charity we raise funds through donations from individuals, organisations and companies and we lobby and campaign to keep children safe. Unicef UK also runs programmes in schools, hospitals and with local authorities in the UK.

For more information please visit unicef.org.uk

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