A baby girl born in the Philippines has been officially declared the world’s eight billionth person.

Baby Vinice Mabansag was born at the Dr Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital in Tondo, in Manila on 15th November and has been chosen to mark the eight billionth person in the world.

Officials from the Filipino Commission on Population and Development were on location to welcome Vinice into the world at 1:29am.

Dr Romeo Bituin, the Chief of the medical staff at the hospital, reportedly said: “We just witnessed the world’s eight billionth baby in the Philippines. So we waited around two hours starting 11pm last night and the baby was delivered at around 1:29 am, normal spontaneous delivery.”

The baby girl was delivered just as the United Nations predicted that the population of the planet would reach eight billion people today, on Tuesday, 15th November, the day she was born.

The United Nations said in a statement: “This unprecedented growth is due to the gradual increase in human lifespan owing to improvements in public health, nutrition, personal hygiene and medicine. It is also the result of high and persistent levels of fertility in some countries.”

Despite it taking 12 years for the planet’s population to go from seven to eight billion people, the United Nations said that it would take until 2037 – 15 years – to reach nine billion people.

They said this was “a sign that the overall growth rate of the global population is slowing.”