Danica May Camacho, a girl, who weighed in at 5.5 pounds, born in Philippine capital Manila, has been chosen by UN to symbolically mark world population milestone.
She was delivered just before midnight on Sunday amid an explosion of press cameras at Manila’s Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital.
The family also received a scholarship grant for Danica’s education & financial support from wellwishers.
Enrique Ona, the country’s health secretary, said the birth offered his country an opportunity to address population-related problems.
The U.S. Population Reference Bureau, said it thinks humans went past 7 billion weeks ago. While the International Institute for Applied System Analysis doesn’t think the population will reach 7 billion until July 2012 at the earliest.
Previous children picked out at birth by the UN to mark world population milestones have complained that the international body forgot about them later in life.
Both 12-year-old Adnan Nevic of Bosnia Herzogovina, the sixth billionth baby, and Matej Gaspar from Croatia, the fifth billionth baby, have complained that the UN chose them at birth & then largely ignored them overall.
Update: United Nations estimates we’ll reach 9 billion in 2050.