New Year’s Babies: Over 11,000 babies will be born in the U.S. on New Year’s Day – UNICEF

NEW YORK, (January 1, 2019) – Almost 11,283 babies will be born in the United States on New Year’s Day, UNICEF said today. American babies will account for approximately 2.9 percent of the estimated 395,072 babies to be born on New Year’s Day.

Across the United States, revelers will welcome not only the New Year with great festivities but also their newest and tiniest residents. As the ball drops in Manhattan, New York will greet an estimated 317 babies, followed later in the evening by 184 in Chicago*, 351 in Los Angeles County and 38 in Honolulu County.

While Hawaii will give birth to the world’s last New Year’s baby, Fiji in the Pacific will most likely deliver 2019’s first. Globally, the United States will give birth to the sixth most New Year’s babies on January 1. The U.S. is preceded by India (69,944), China (44,940), Nigeria (25,685), Pakistan (15,112) and Indonesia (13,256), who are the top five countries.

In the U.S., the top ten counties with the largest number of births on January 1 are:  

Around the U.S. on January 1, families will welcome countless Emmas, Liams, Olivias and Williams. But in several countries, many babies will not even be named as they won’t make it past their first day.

In 2017, about 1 million babies died the day they were born, and 2.5 million in just their first month of life. Among those children, most died from preventable causes such as premature birth, complications during delivery, and infections like sepsis and pneumonia, a violation of their basic right to survival.

“American babies born in 2019 are estimated to live until 2099, but we want to see a world where all babies can live the same long and healthy lives,” said Caryl M. Stern, President and CEO of UNICEF USA. “Being born on a celebrated day like New Year’s Day is random chance. But so is where you are born, and New Year’s Day is a reminder of how fortunate we are here in the United States, and what more we can do to save the lives of newborns everywhere.”

Over the past three decades, the world has seen unprecedented progress in child survival, cutting the number of children worldwide who die before their fifth birthday by more than half. But there has been slower progress for newborns. Babies dying in the first month account for 47 percent of all deaths among children under five.

UNICEF’s Every Child Alive campaign calls for immediate investment to deliver affordable, quality health care solutions for every mother and newborn. These include a steady supply of clean water and electricity at health facilities, the presence of a skilled health attendant during birth, ample supplies and medicines to prevent and treat complications during pregnancy, delivery and birth, and empowered adolescent girls and women who can demand better quality of health services.

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Notes to Editors
*Data for Cook County, which includes Chicago.

For estimates on the number of births on 1 January across US counties, click here. For un-rounded estimates on births and life expectancy across 190 countries, click here. For top ten baby names across 20 countries, including the US, click here. For the data, UNICEF worked with the World Data Lab.

The estimates for the number of babies born draw on the period indicators and the life tables of the UN’s World Population Prospects (2017). Building on these datasets, World Data Lab’s (WDL) algorithm projects the number of births for each day by country and US cities.
 

About UNICEF
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) works in more than 190 countries and territories to put children first. UNICEF has helped save more children’s lives than any other humanitarian organization, by providing health care and immunizations, safe water and sanitation, nutrition, education, emergency relief and more. UNICEF USA supports UNICEF's work through fundraising, advocacy and education in the United States. Together, we are working toward the day when no children die from preventable causes and every child has a safe and healthy childhood. For more information, visit www.unicefusa.org.
 

For more information, contact
Gabby Arias, UNICEF USA, 917.720.1306, garias@unicefusa.org