How Common is Your Birthday? This Visualization Might Surprise You

By Matt Stiles | Matt Stiles | Topics: Demographics

It’s baby season in America, with September the busiest month for births on average in the last two decades. So it seemed like the right time to remix this blog’s most-popular post: How Common is Your Birthday?

That old heatmap, which highlighted specific dates for popularity, has been viewed more than 500,000 times here and published across the web. But it was flawed, namely that it used ordinal data (birthday ranks by date) rather than continuous data (actual births counts by date). This graphic finally addresses that problem:

This new version of the heatmap, which is interactive on larger screens, uses births by day from 1994 to 2014, thanks for the fine folks at FiveThirtyEight, whose reporters posted the tables on Github for an unrelated project. It lists the average number of births by day, the rank (number one is most common) and an estimated — if slightly irresponsible — conception date.

Some highlights:

  • Holidays: People generally seem to have time for baby making during their time off. Several of the most-common birth dates, in September, correspond with average conception periods around Christmas. Sept. 9 is most-common in this dataset, though other days in that month are close. Sept. 19 is second. Following a customary gestation period, many of these babies would, in theory, have been conceived on Dec. 17 and 27, respectively.

  • Choice: Clearly, some people choose when they have their children. While they’re making babies during the holidays, many people aren’t really having them then. The least-common birthdays in this dataset were Christmas Eve, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Dates around Thanksgiving aren’t as common. July 4 is also at the bottom of the list. Conversely, Valentine’s Day ranks relatively high, as you can see in the graphic, as are the days just before a new tax year begins.

  • Skewed: There are some fun patterns in this data, but the difference between your birthday — unless it’s on a truly rare day — isn’t that much different than a top date in September. There a left-tailed skewness to the data, which ranges from 6,500 births per day to more than 12,000. The median number of births per day, though, is around 11,000. The most-common day had 12,300 births, on average. More on the data distribution soon.

You can have a look at the data for yourself in this table:

Chances are you came here looking for the legacy birthday graphic. If you must, find it here, along with a related post about the flawed methodology.

Meanwhile, check out your birthday, share your thoughts in the comments — and tell the Internet to do the same.

Credits: Thanks, Cynthia Brewer, for your wonderful color guide. After trying several of your sample palettes, I couldn’t decide. So my three-year-old daughter — who celebrates a birthday Sept. 22 — chose this one. It looked the most like a birthday cake, she said. Also, thanks to publicdomainpictures.net for the cake image.

Follow me on Twitter @stiles, and keep up with The Daily Viz posts on Facebook.

85 thoughts on “How Common is Your Birthday? This Visualization Might Surprise You”

    2. My birthday falls on 29 June which is 111th in the chart

      Let’s see how many occurrences happens on which day 1994-2014

      Monday (1998, 2009) 2 times
      Tuesday (1999,2004,2010) 3 times
      Wednesday (1994,2005,2011) 3 Times
      Thursday (1995,2000,2006 my birth year) 3 times
      Friday (2001,2007,2012) 3 times
      Saturday (1996,2002,2013) 3 times
      Sunday (1997,2003,2008,2014) 4 times

      My birthday falls more on Sunday (2014) only next in 2025 less on Monday

  2. This is accurate. I was unfortunate enough to have been told the actual day of my conception, and the chart says I should have been conceived just the day before. Given all the variables in play, one day off is incredibly accurate.

  4. The data is still somewhat biased because of the irregular sample size. In order to have completely unbiased data you need to have a number of samples such that each day falls on a particular day of the week the same number of times as any other day.

    By looking at the graph there are clear spikes on April 4, 11, and 18. We know this is a cause of this bias because:

    For example, the day April 11th, from 1994-2014, falls on:
    Monday 3 times (1994, 2005, 2011)
    Tuesday 3 times (1995, 2000, 2006)
    Wednesday 3 times (2001, 2007, 2012)
    Thursday 3 times (1996, 2002, 2013)
    Friday 3 times (1997, 2003, 2008, 2014)
    Saturday 2 times (1998, 2009)
    Sunday 3 times (1999, 2004, 2010)

    It has more occurrences on a Friday and less occurrences on a Saturday compared to the other days of the week. Because of other studies showing that weekend birthdays are less common than weekday ones, we can conclude that the lowered frequency of weekend dates for the days April 4, 11, and 18 are causing a spike.

    In order to have unbiased data you need a sample size of a 28-year span (e.g: 1989-2016) in which each day of the year falls on each day of the week exactly 4 times, expect Feb. 29 in which it falls on each day of the week exactly once.

  5. My birthday is the rarest by far. Interesting seeing the slump around Christmas. I wonder if Christmas babies were as rare in the past as they are now?

    1. Probably not as in the past far less labors were induced. With the rise of inductions we are seeing the lowering of the number of births on holidays. Basically births are planned now more than ever.

  7. I’m not sure how February 29 is not last. Is that controlled for somewhere to normalize that date against the others? Far fewer people are born on February 29 than on any other date, so I presume some kind of statistical adjustment has been made.

    I always tell people that I almost never meet anyone who shares my birthday, November 23. Sure enough, it’s 359th!

    1. That’s a good question, and I honestly can’t remember whether I thought about it then. I should either 1) exclude it or 2) do a weighted average. Thanks for prompting me to check it out.

      1. Scorpio Sagittarius cusp… 11/22/1981 is my birthday. I’m also on this cusp. It’s the cusp of revolution.
        They’re both rare birthdays

    5. I just gave birth to my daughter on November 23rd (Black Friday this year). We were induced for preeclampsia and were not due until January 31st. Happy to have her either way <3

  8. I also notice the 13th of every month is low. I always thought your birthday was just whatever day it was but it seems there is way more control than I thought. I’d like to see what the numbers for 9/11 look like after 2001. I’ll bet money that day drops way off.

  9. I’m surprised there is no mention of planned c-section, (and also to a lesser extent, inductions) being less likely to be planned for public holidays, weekends. Some women offered dates for planned c-section may be less likely to choose the 13th of the month, or Friday the 13th.

    I also thought it was widely assumed that the increase of births in August September time is at least partially due to the ‘Christmas Spirit’ – Spending more time with loved ones, or Christmas Parties or/and drinking more alcohol causing ‘accidents’ with contraception or simply not using it.

    As for the increase in births starts in June July time. I wonder if there is a corresponding increase in prescriptions of antibiotics in the Autumn and start of Winter? Some pregnancies occur as the mother’s contraceptive pill has been made ineffective by antibiotics, either because the couple didn’t know they needed to use additional contraception or because they forgot to.

  10. It would be interesting to see the graphic split for planned c-sections, and another for all other births (vaginal delivery, emergency c-section, any induction).

    Something else that might be interesting to know – is there a time of year where it is more likely for IVF (embryos to be transferred back) and similar other fertility treatment to be carried out? The resulting pregnancies have a higher chance of twins, and (in the UK at least) a higher chance of the mother being under consultant care rather than midwife/GP team. Being under consultant care it is more likely babies will be born by c-section.

  11. I was born on April 1, but it was in 1993, so if they could calculate the birthdays from 1990-2000, that would be great

  14. Yes, this is surprising, because with my friends group we hate november 20-25 because 12 of them (of 28) born on those dates. Five on 23.

  16. I have thought for some time that low birth rates for major holidays are due to lack of elective c sections. I think doctors and hospital staff would be difficult to arrange for Christmas day, Christmas eve, New year day, independence day. That seems obvious!

  17. Would be nice to see the same data set charted to moon phase. And to see if similar trends hold true in other countries. Maybe it is an American quirk to abstain from birth during festive occasions.

  18. What incredible is that 2/29 is not the least likely birthday, even though it comes only once every four years. Also, Hospitals and mothers don’t want to birth babies on holidays.

  21. I am generally way too tired to conceive a child on Christmas, but I guess that’s mostly because I already have kids. I wonder how different this map is for firstborn vs others.

  22. The ability to control delivery – for the benefit of the physician as well as the parents – has to account for some of the weirder anomalies. Obviously babies are being pushed off holidays and being done early (induction) or later (C-sections) regardless of the conception date (no one plans that well!).

    The dearth of births on all of the 13ths of the months is bizarre. Is triskaidekaphobia actually that strong? I’d blame it on the sample size, but it is convincing right across the year.

  24. Low birth rates on the days around the fourth of july and Christmas and New Years days. This probably reflects low rates of caesarean sections or the preference of obstetricians NOT to operate on those days (they have the day off). This also points to the fact that many caesareans are NOT a medical necessity at the time they are performed.
    .

  26. I was supposed to be born on Thanksgiving, so that would have been weird. I don’t know why, but I was born premature and now I am almost the youngest kid in the class.

  27. I see you don’t monetize your site, but you can earn extra cash every day.
    It’s very easy even for noobs, if you are interested simply search in gooogle: pandatsor’s
    tools

  28. I’m pretty skeptical about the accuracy.
    If you look at the lowest 6 birthdays, they’re all special days, like Christmas, Independence Day, New Years Day, or adjacent days. They’re not just a little lower, they’ve a LOT lower.

    I’d expect couples to TRY to give birth on those days, so I’d have expected those days to have higher rates than average. That assumption may be flawed, but I can’t see why those days would have such significantly lower birth rates.
    I suspect there is some flaw in the method or data.

    1. It’s because hospitals have less staff on those days, due to holidays. So c-section, inductions, etc are planned for before or after.

      I also hear some parents avoid holidays so their kid doesn’t feel less special by having to share it.

    2. No, they wouldn’t want to have babies on holidays because it is super expensive. Take Christmas for example, the poor people wouldn’t be able to celebrate the holiday with their family, because they would be in the hospital.

    3. Well, I think your assumption is wrong, I guess most women don’t want to give birth on any holiday and miss it, and also maybe don’t want their child’s birthday to be on a holiday, because its hard to have a birthday party on that day. Of course the latter aspect is only valid for holidays that are fixed to a specific date rather than a weekday or the moon. Because of that, the drop in births on thanksgiving spreads over all possible days , but it’s probably as high as on Christmas. Would be funny to compare different countries, as I am from Germany, for example Easter might be more important here and we don’t have thanksgiving(at least not like in the US).

    4. The reason there are fewer births on major fixed holidays (i.e. holidays that fall on the same date every year, not day of the week) is because hospitals and birth centers avoid scheduling planned inductions and C-sections on holidays, resulting in fewer babies being born on purpose on those days compared to literally every other day of the year.

    5. People don’t like to have birthdays on holidays like Christmas and New Years Day. They are forgotten in the festivity of the day itself. As a parent I would choose not to have my child born on a day when they are likely to not be celebrated or at least come second. Ask most anyone born on Christmas or Christmas Eve – forgotten. And I would also personally prefer to not have been born on the 13th – superstition: not just mine but anyone elses.

  30. Well, I think your assumption is wrong, I guess most women don’t want to give birth on any holiday and miss it, and also maybe don’t want their child’s birthday to be on a holiday, because its hard to have a birthday party on that day. Of course the latter aspect is only valid for holidays that are fixed to a specific date rather than a weekday or the moon. Because of that, the drop in births on thanksgiving spreads over all possible days , but it’s probably as high as on Christmas. Would be funny to compare different countries, as I am from Germany, for example Easter might be more important here and we don’t have thanksgiving(at least not like in the US).

  34. Also skewed by trying not to induce over holidays and not planning C sections on holidays, and people planning to have children so they are at the beginning of the school year.

  36. This data was compiled incorrectly. Rather than take the average for February 29th including all years you only took the average using years with a leap year in them. Meaning that you misrepresented the data.

  37. It is a nice analysis. Considering however how many induced births are in the US due to reasons of convenience of parents or doctor, I wonder what this actually states about anything.

  38. My mom 12/24 (she died Good Friday)
    Me 1/1
    son 12/25
    niece 7/4
    Dad 3/27 (Easter)
    niece 11/24
    niece 10/13 ( Friday 13th before Halloween. We also buried my sister, her mother on 10/13)

  40. Is there any data on birthdates prior to 1960, before the pill was readily available? I would bet that things would even out a bit more, as there was less control possible. I was born in the fifties on day number 320, which was not only a 13 but also a Friday. My mother’s due date was Thursday the 12th, and she went to the hospital insisting that they deliver me because she did not want to have a bad-luck baby! I, apparently, had other plans. At any rate, despite my birthdate’s lack of popularity, I know about a dozen people with the same birthdate, all in my generation.

  41. My father, me, and my son all share same birthday. 1 in 49 million chance. Add to that, we are all second born. Add to that , my son and I were both born in the same hour of the day.

  46. I Dont think its bad to have a birthday on a holiday cause the advantage is there will be no school if your birthday is on a holiday

  52. i thought my was rare cusIn 1940, during World War II, Adolf Hitler gained a stunning victory as France was forced to sign an armistice eight days after German forces overran Paris. In 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, more popularly known as the “GI Bill of Rights.”Jun 22, 2019

  56. My birthday is on the 3rd of November. Honestly i don’t think its too common because my grandmother’s and my cousin’s birthday is on the second of November

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *