THE FACT OF THE MATTER
BY PAUL HOPKINS
There’s a new baby coming into the world any second now. Nothing new in that; babies are born every second of every minute, of every day. On average there are 490,000 babies born every day worldwide, that’s 323 every minute, five a second – as opposed to 250,000 deaths a day, 173 a minute, or about three every time we blink. Statistically, according to the UN, there is a net surplus of us every day of 240,000.
There were 134 million babies born in 2022, the last figures available. There were 67 million people who died in 2022. The world population, therefore, increased by 67 million people in 2022 (that is a net increase of 0.84%).
All humans coming into the world are born in a variety of circumstances, into rich and plush surroundings or abject and dire settings with nearly half of them, according to UN figures, not living to see their first birthdays.
But what can a baby born in the next 24 hours expect of his or her life ahead? It seems there’s good and bad news lying ahead for the little mites.
The number crunchers claim that of the 490,000 babies born every day worldwide, 35% will still be alive in 2129. We can expect the early 22nd Century to be a wondrous place, where people aged more than 90 will outnumber those under 16, as families, in countries like Ireland, are shrinking.
Life expectancy has risen dramatically in the last century and this rise shows no sign of slowing; indeed, for men and women here it currently stands at five hours a day, equivalent to a decline in mortality rates of about 1% a year. This means that each year, life expectancy at birth is increasing by more than two months.
Whether this trend, despite what some scientists argue, continues is debatable. Thanks to the industrial and the medical revolutions many of us today are living into our 80s and 90s in so-so health. Future generations, though, living into their 11th or even 12th decades is, naturally, unchartered territory.
As I write, there are 8.1 billion souls on the planet. At the moment, demographic experts cannot predict exactly when the 10 billionth child will be born but, according to the latest calculations by the UN, it could occur in 2050.
But happen it will, because the world’s population will continue to grow. New approaches and unprecedented levels of global co-operation are needed to ensure that this child grows up in a world that offers at least the same opportunities as you and I enjoy today – because it’s common decency and an issue that should, and must, concern us all.
Now, comes the bummer. Findings from PricewaterhouseCoopers, raise the prospect of a baby, born today, retiring nearly two decades older than their grandparents who stopped working at 65.
PwC says the little ones are going to have to ‘recondition’ their expectations about how long they must work before getting a State pension – assuming there is still something left in the pension pot. Their report says: “They need to accept their working life will last for five or six decades.’’
Next thing you know we’ll be pushing them back up the chimneys while they’re still in nappies.
