Who Really Is The World’s Seven Billionth Person?

The world’s seven billionth person was a tiny little girl named Danica May Camacho who was born today in Manila, the Philipines, and weighed just 2.5kg (she was one month premature).

Oh, wait! It was actually this other little girl named Nargis who was born today in Uttar Pradesh in India.

Hold the phone! This Reuters report says the seven billionth baby might be born October 31 in China.

What’s that, US Census Bureau? The seven billionth baby won’t be born until April? What the heck is going on here?

Will the real seven billionth baby please stand up? Or at least give us a little baby fist pump? Turns out no one has any freaking idea who the seven billionth human on the planet is. The celebrations in the Philippines and India today are merely symbolic — demographers don’t know who actually deserves the crown. The seven billionth human might have been born in August, or might still be in the womb.

The problem is that so many developing countries have poor demographic records. United Nations population estimates chief Gerhard Heilig says it’s “nonsense” to imagine anyone could actually pinpoint who the seven billionth baby because estimates come with a 1 to 2 per cent margin of error. When you’re talking about seven billion, that comes out to about 56 million people, and he says the birth in question could have happened six months ago or might be six months from now. So the UN picked October 31 somewhat arbitrarily. Also based on projections, the US Census bureau picked five months from now.

What they do know is that the world’s population has exploded at a frightening rate. In just the past dozen years, we jumped from six billion to seven billion, and demographers say we might hit nine billion by 2050 — and by the end of this century we might reach 10 billion. That’s terrifying. People, please, stop having so many babies. This pale blue dot is getting crowded!

Of course, that’s easier said than done. But one way to do it could be by educating girls better (which, even if unsuccessful, would be a good thing to do). If girls in the most under-developed countries delay getting married and having kids just five years (until after adolescence), 224 million fewer children would be born by 2050, according to the Population Council, and that would reduce UN population growth projections for 2050 by 39 per cent.

The good news is the birth rate has slowed since the ’60s when it peaked at 2 per cent. It’s continuing to slow down, thank God, but it’s still 2 per cent or higher in places like Sub-Saharan Africa, which is beyond the rate of replacing peeps who die.

More good news is (IMO) that the Indian and Filipino seven billionth babies are girls! If just symbolically, it underscores the importance of education and empowerment for females around the world. Baby girl fist pump! [BBC]

Image: Associated Press