New Delhi, January 2: India welcomed more than 67,000 babies on this New Year's Day, which was the highest in the world. Second in the list was China with 46,000 followed by Nigeria (26,000), Pakistan (16,000), Indonesia (13,000) and the United States (10,000).

These projections were released by UNICEF on Wednesday. According to a Times of India report, India babies accounted for 17 percent of the 392,078 babies born globally. UNICEF said that Fiji most likely delivered world's first baby on January 1 and United States the last. Countries That Will Enter New Year 2020 First & Last: Know the List of Nations With Names That Will Enjoy NYE Celebrations at Different Time Zones.

Several parents chose the day for caesarean as they wanted their baby to be born on January 1, which is considered auspicious. However, according to dismal statistics shared by UNICEF, a lot of babies fail to survive their first month and the mortality rate on the first day of the birth is also quite high. In 2018, 2.5 million newborns died in just their first month and about a third of them on the first day of their life.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 02, 2020 09:47 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).