An estimated 44,940 babies were born in China on New Year’s Day, accounting for 11 percent of the world’s total, according to a report released by UNICEF on 1 Jan. 2019.

China welcomed in the second largest number of newborns worldwide, with India topping the list with an estimated 69,944 children born on January 1st.

This year, UNICEF calls for all nations to meet the basic human rights of these babies to be healthy and survive, with Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director, declaring “This New Year Day, let’s all make a resolution to fulfill every right of every child, starting with the right to survive.”

In 2017, about 1 million babies died on the day they were born, while 2.5 million died in their first month. Most of these children died from preventable causes such as premature birth, complications during delivery, and infections like sepsis and pneumonia. Gornitzka stressed that millions of babies could be saved worldwide if countries invest in training and equip local health workers correctly so that every birth is clean and safe.

In China, the child mortality rate has dropped significantly in recent years, with China Daily reporting that the figure fell to 6.8 per thousand in 2017 compared with 7.5 per thousand the previous year.

 In an official guideline, titled Healthy China 2030, the country outlined plans to further reduce the infant mortality rate to five per thousand by 2030.

“China has made enormous progress on reducing the number of mothers and children dying by increasing access to high-quality primary health care across the country. However, newborn deaths, which account for about 50 percent of all deaths among children under five years, are still a challenge. UNICEF has worked and will continue to work in partnership with the Government of China to ensure every birth occurs with skilled birth attendance, ending preventable newborn deaths and stillbirths and making sure no child dies from a preventable cause,” said Dr. Douglas Noble, UNICEF Deputy Representative to China.

This January 1st, around one-fifth of all babies were born in the East Asia and Pacific region. As the world welcomed in 2019, Sydney greeted an estimated 168 babies, followed by 310 in Tokyo and 605 in Beijing.