On October 31, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. The birthday of the seven-billionth inhabitant of the Earth will be celebrated in the Vitebsk region with congratulations to mothers and newborns born on October 31, the Labour, Employment and Social Protection Committee of the Regional Executive Committee informed a BELTA correspondent. Despite the fact that it is already known that the seven-billionth inhabitant of the Earth is a boy named Pyotr, born today at the Kaliningrad Perinatal Center at 00:02 Moscow time, in the Vitebsk region, with the support of the UN/UNDP representation in Belarus, all babies born on October 31 will be congratulated, as the birth date and place of birth of the seven-billionth Earthling are chosen by the UN conditionally. Today in the region, according to the Healthcare Department, about forty new inhabitants of the planet are expected. Ceremonies of congratulations and presentation of commemorative certificates of the 7-billionth inhabitant of the Earth, born on October 31, 2011 in Belarus, will be held in Vitebsk, Orsha, Polotsk and Novopolotsk. In the oil workers' city, public organizations "Belaya Rus", the Union of Women, and the Belarusian Republican Youth Union have joined the event. By decision of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), October 31 has been chosen as the day when humanity will officially enter the eighth billion. Since it is impossible to accurately calculate which of the newborns will "open the count", the UN designates the date of the event in advance and then invents the city where it occurred. Thus, in 1999, the UN announced that the six-billionth child was born in the Bosnian city of Sarajevo. In total, over two centuries, from 1800 to 2011, the number of people inhabiting our planet has increased sevenfold. According to UN estimates, in just over 40 years, by 2050, the world's population will be 9.3 billion people, and by the end of the century, this number will exceed 10 billion. -0-

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