October 5th is the most common birthday! Check the internet1 and most sites say it's the truth. However a New York Times survey2 reported that day to be September 16th. Then again the 2010 census reported it to be October 10th3. However all these surveys report August through October as the most common birth month, so that any of these dates could be the most popular birthday. The explanation is that conception probably takes place shortly before the New Year begins -- with an idea of renewal in the form of a child.
Historically, however, this has not been true. Dan Rogers of Albany, Oregon has analyzed birthdays of the last 400 years at his genealogy website. He shows that the most popular birthday has been January 1st -- followed by February 14th. New Year's Day has been 65% more popular than the average day. Why do you think this is true? Do you think a mother can choose these special birthdays for her child? Rogers maintains that within a day or two a mother can change the date. As evidence he notes that the days before and after New Year's Day and Valentine's Day have been significantly less common as birthdates.
The other internet sites also note that Christmas Day currently is very unpopular as a birthday. Perhaps this is because people want their children to have a birthday different from Jesus. However in bygone days Christmas births were much more popular with significantly fewer birthdates on the 24th and 26th.
There has been no strong bias showing July 4th to be a particularly popular birthdate. Before and after 1776, Independence Day per capita births have been nearly the same.
Halloween has been an unpopular date in bygone times -- but not these days. Nowadays with all the trick-or-treaters at our doorsteps we don't consider Halloween birthdays as bad omens.
Furthermore Rogers notes that the most common birth month in past years has been March -- not August through October. Why is this so? Rogers has found a correlation between marriage dates and children's birthdays. Marriages formerly were in November and December while present-day ones are in June. This shows that the most popular time to conceive babies is 6 months after their marriage anniversary. Certainly not everyone does this, but there is an internal bias pushing us to do it that way.
Were you married in June? Then your babies will likely be conceived in December and born in September. In times gone by, they married in December, conceived in June, gave birth in March.
1. http://funky-facts.blogspot.com/2009/01/most-common-birthday-day.html| Birthday | Total | Aft. 1900 | 1800's | 1700's | 1600's |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec. 30 | 107 | 14 | 33 | 36 | 23 |
| Dec. 31 | 98 | 17 | 32 | 36 | 11 |
| Jan. 1 | 206 | 23 | 51 | 66 | 51 |
| Jan. 2 | 121 | 13 | 32 | 37 | 34 |
| Jan. 3 | 120 | 16 | 29 | 39 | 33 |
| . . . | |||||
| Feb. 12 | 137 | 17 | 36 | 52 | 26 |
| Feb. 13 | 140 | 23 | 34 | 38 | 40 |
| Feb. 14 | 196 | 24 | 52 | 59 | 53 |
| Feb. 15 | 132 | 14 | 38 | 36 | 40 |
| Feb. 16 | 141 | 17 | 28 | 44 | 44 |
| . . . | |||||
| Oct. 29 | 97 | 14 | 15 | 42 | 23 |
| Oct. 30 | 153 | 16 | 37 | 60 | 36 |
| Oct. 31 | 91 | 23 | 22 | 28 | 13 |
| Nov. 1 | 150 | 17 | 36 | 39 | 45 |
| Nov. 2 | 130 | 17 | 36 | 45 | 25 |
| . . . | |||||
| Dec. 23 | 114 | 9 | 36 | 37 | 30 |
| Dec. 24 | 109 | 15 | 31 | 35 | 24 |
| Dec. 25 | 142 | 16 | 41 | 47 | 29 |
| Dec. 26 | 95 | 10 | 23 | 37 | 23 |
| Dec. 27 | 128 | 14 | 36 | 51 | 21 |
| Month | All | Aft. 1900 | 1800's | 1700's | 1600's |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 4027 | 517 | 1011 | 1339 | 975 |
| February | 4081 | 485 | 998 | 1386 | 1049 |
| March | 4546 | 563 | 1122 | 1550 | 1118 |
| April | 4054 | 530 | 1017 | 1461 | 862 |
| May | 3977 | 588 | 1024 | 1358 | 846 |
| June | 3510 | 538 | 931 | 1131 | 717 |
| July | 3584 | 572 | 950 | 1216 | 698 |
| August | 3868 | 564 | 1000 | 1313 | 816 |
| September | 3963 | 538 | 1063 | 1276 | 882 |
| October | 4012 | 540 | 1000 | 1432 | 876 |
| November | 3756 | 519 | 961 | 1261 | 841 |
| December | 3689 | 484 | 1005 | 1268 | 803 |
| ---------- | ------- | ---- | ---- | ---- | ---- |
| Total | 47,067 | 6438 | 12,082 | 15,991 | 10,483 |
| Avg. | 3922 | 537 | 1007 | 1333 | 874 |
| Month | All | 1600's | 1700's | 1800's | Aft. 1900 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan. | 4183 | 685 | 1705 | 1093 | 403 |
| Feb. | 3402 | 509 | 1316 | 853 | 415 |
| Mar. | 3488 | 568 | 1330 | 871 | 379 |
| Apr. | 3355 | 578 | 1227 | 884 | 465 |
| May | 3635 | 701 | 1319 | 764 | 543 |
| Jun. | 3594 | 524 | 1113 | 720 | 959 |
| Jul. | 2824 | 426 | 942 | 618 | 553 |
| Aug. | 2764 | 352 | 935 | 597 | 646 |
| Sep. | 3296 | 461 | 1009 | 916 | 663 |
| Oct. | 3954 | 641 | 1378 | 1073 | 575 |
| Nov. | 4836 | 949 | 1857 | 1181 | 564 |
| Dec. | 4648 | 936 | 1861 | 1159 | 563 |
| ---- | ------ | ---- | ------ | ------ | ---- |
| Total | 43,979 | 7330 | 15,992 | 10,728 | 6728 |
| Avg. | 3665 | 611 | 1333 | 894 | 561 |
This page is copyrighted(2010-2011) and may be used commercially only with the expressed written consent of the webmaster.