Birth Rates in Terms of Babies Born By Hour By Country

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Pallavi Rao

writer, and general court jester
Image credit : Anna Diederichs

The Number of Babies Born Every Hour, by Country

Visualizing Birth Rates and Babies Born Every Hour by Country

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

In 2023, more than 132 million babies were born around the world. This works out to roughly 15,000 babies born every hour.

We visualize what this looks like for each country, showing how the most populous countries in the world are contributing to overall population growth.

Data is sourced from the latest UN Population Prospects. Figures are rounded.

Ranked: Countries with the Most Births (2023)

At the top of the list, India saw over 2,600 births every hour in 2023. This is more than twice the number of second-ranked China (roughly 1,000).

Search:

Rank

Country

Births in 2023

Born per hour

1

 India

23,219,489

2,651

2

 China

8,899,881

1,016

3

 Nigeria

7,509,758

857

4

 Pakistan

6,882,058

786

5

 Indonesia

4,482,359

512

6

 DRC

4,369,683

499

7

 Ethiopia

4,105,685

469

8

 U.S.

3,657,476

418

9

 Bangladesh

3,489,953

398

10

 Brazil

2,601,670

297

N/A

🌎 World

132,110,261

15,081

Note: Figures are rounded to the closest whole number for births per hour

Put together, nearly one-in-four births every hour occurred in India or China.

Going through the rest of the list, Nigeria (857) and Pakistan (786) have similar birth totals, as do Indonesia (512), DRC (499), and Ethiopia (469).

The U.S. (418) and Bangladesh (398) round out the top nine. This is an interesting cut off point because these countries together account for half of all global births every hour.

Naturally, this list closely mirrors the top nine most populous countries. There are two exceptions: the DRC replacing Brazil, and Ethiopia replacing Russia.

Population Growth Amidst Falling Birth Rates

Despite these seemingly large numbers, every country on this list is seeing falling birth rates.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing—slower population growth could mean better education prospects and more opportunities in the workforce.

Combined with a (relatively) low death rate, the working age population could expand. With fewer dependents to support, productivity could increase. This is known as the demographic dividend and it allows countries to increase per capita income and consumption.

But for some countries like China, birth rates have already been eclipsed by their death rate. In fact, China’s population officially started shrinking in 2022. While labor productivity is still high, an aging population could test the limits of further economic growth.

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