Seven billionth child born as 20,000 die from preventable causes

More than 20,000 children will die on the day the world's seven billionth baby is born, according to a report.

Most of the deaths will be caused by diseases which can easily be prevented, such as diarrhoea or pneumonia, an international children's charity says.

Research from Save the Children shows that saving these lives would 'dramatically reduce' population growth, rather than adding to it.

Tackling high death rates and reducing child mortality leads to lower fertility rates, smaller families and the stabilisation of national populations.

A mother living in Chad, one of the world’s poorest countries, will give birth to an average of six children in her lifetime.

This also used to be true of Botswana, but after investment in healthcare which has helped to reduce child mortality rates by nearly half in the past 10 years, the average Botswanan mother now has just 3 children. In the UK, the average is 2.

Saving children's lives in the poorest countries is therefore crucial to slowing the growth of the population, the charity said.

Brendan Cox, Save the Children's director of policy and advocacy said: "We know there is a real and urgent need to tackle the world population problem before it’s too late.

"It may seem illogical that saving children’s lives is the best way of stabilising the global population, but the evidence is overwhelming.

"In the poorest countries, where parents are often petrified that their children will die and leave them to fend for themselves, it’s understandable that they would choose to have larger families.

"We must help to give them another choice. As we bring child mortality down, parents will feel more confident that most of their children will survive and have smaller families as a result."

Around 7.5 million children worldwide die before reaching their fifth birthday. However, the seven billionth baby is still more likely to reach this age than any other time in history.

Today one in 16 children worldwide reach the age of five compared with one in one in nine in 1987, when the five billionth baby was born.

This article was published on Mon 31 October 2011