What we count
Live births worldwide since the start of the calendar year. The source indicator excludes stillbirths.
Children born this year
How many children have been born since the start of the year and how births have changed over time.
Continuous calculation
WORLDThis year's context
211,764children born today
39,490,002people who died this year
42,734,754population growth this year
What lies behind this number
The number turns an annual demographic projection into a running count of live births since 1 January.
How Metrilum calculates it
The UN estimates annual births from fertility, women's age structure and national population trends. We scale the 2026 value by the elapsed share of the year.
What one number cannot show
It does not distinguish countries, times of day or seasonal patterns. It is a smooth representation of an annual projection, not a live connection to global civil registers.
Births over time
UN historical estimates and medium projections show the changing number of births.
Estimate and projection boundary: 1950, 1975 and 2000 are UN historical estimates. 2025, 2050 and 2100 are medium projections.
YearBirths per yearType
195091,823,940estimate
1975121,030,100estimate
2000135,758,480estimate
2025132,399,176projection
2050132,555,180projection
2100110,028,470projection
How the number is calculated
The annual 2026 projection is scaled by the elapsed part of the year.
Formula used
B(t) = B₂₀₂₆ × elapsed share of the yearBirths in 2026132,503,470UN medium projection
Average per day362,782children per 24 hours
Calculation interval0.1 sContinuous calculation
Annual value
Use the published UN medium projection for 2026.
Elapsed share
Scale it by the elapsed share of the year. The counter restarts at the beginning of the next calendar year.
Smooth display
The result is recalculated on screen every 0.1 seconds.
Where the data comes from
The input is the latest published 2026 value of the total live births indicator from World Population Prospects 2024, checked on 11 August 2026.
Latest published and verified source value
- Publisher
- UN Population Division
- Indicator
- Total live births
- Reference year
- 2026
- Variant
- Medium projection
- Coverage
- Worldwide
- Checked
- 11 August 2026