New Year’s Babies: Over 2,688 children will be born in Myanmar on New Year’s Day - UNICEF

NEW YORK/YANGON, 1 January 2021 – An estimated 2,688 babies will be born in Myanmar 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).

Babies in Myanmar will account for 0.7 per cent of the estimated 371,504 babies to be born on New Year’s Day. Their average life expectancy is expected to be 75.3 years.

 “This has been an unprecedented year for all of us, with some opportunities as well as many challenges, and what better way to turn the page than to welcome new young lives into the world,” said June Kunugi, UNICEF Myanmar Representative. “We must do even more together in 2021 to build a better world. Children born today will inherit the world we build and safeguard for them.”

2021 marks the 75th 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 75th Anniversary—to renew our commitment to each other, and to the young lives who will inherit the world we leave,” said Kunugi. “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.”

Note: Life expectancy in Myanmar and factsheets for life expectancy by country and region are updated on 11 January 2021 following a data correction by the data team.

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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