3.7L babies born worldwide on Jan 1, 60K in India

New York: An estimated 3,71,504 babies were born around the world on New Year's Day, with about 60,000 babies born in India alone, the UN Children's Fund (Unicef) said late on Friday.

In total, an estimated 140 million (14 crore) children will be born in 2021. Their average life expectancy is expected to be 84 years. While Fiji in the Pacific welcomed 2021's first baby, the US its last.

Globally, over half of the births on the first day of New Year were 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 US (10,312), Egypt (9,455), Bangladesh (9,236) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (8,640), the Unicef said.

"The children born on Friday enter a world far different than even a year ago, and a New Year brings a new opportunity to reimagine it," Unicef Executive Director Henrietta Fore said in a statement.

"Children born today will inherit the world we begin to build for them - today. Let us make 2021 the year we start to build a fairer, safer, healthier world for children."

In India, the babies born on Friday will have a life expectancy of 80.9 years, Unicef said.

An additional thousand babies are surviving each day due to the country's efforts as envisaged in the India Newborn Action Plan 2014-2020, the UN agency said.