Graphing how common different birthdays are

(from The Daily Viz)

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Category: z - Arts & Culture

39 Responses

  1. Jawan says:

    It’s all that snuggle time in the winter months that make the summer babies!

    • Marci says:

      Thats exactly what I was going to comment haha!

    • Steve C. says:

      The polling probably is limited to the United States. Doctors and emergency rooms in other parts of the world don’t necessarily take off (for holiday or vacation) all of July 4th, the 4th weekend of November, and the days around Christmas, plus rush back to induce all those “tax deduction” babies prior to New Year’s Day.

      • derek k says:

        You’re an idiot STEVE my mom is in the medical field and just cuz we’re american doesn’t mean we take off every holiday. My mom doesn’t spend a single holiday with us because she’s a nurse. And my fiances dad is a Surgeon and guess what… He works on Sundays if need be.

      • Darren says:

        Wow, I wouldn’t have noticed that. Kinda brutally obvious now that you point it out.

    • Antony says:

      Wouldn’t that depend on which part of the world you were in…

  2. Shell says:

    Apparently this is not from around here, because I have only met one person every with my birthday (July 12) and have heard of many many people on August 19. And April. Is. Swamped!!

    • Lup says:

      Just because you know a lot of people with birthdays from certain days doesn’t make this graph untrue. You are one person and the graph isn’t based on you.

    • AS says:

      Shell…my Dad is July the 12th, and my son is August 19th? What does “this is not from around here” have to do with the origin of this graph?

    • Beth says:

      My third daughter was July 12, and I don’t know anyone with an August 19 birthday. Lol, the graph takes a large number of people, not just one person’s experience.

  3. Lynnette says:

    The September birthdays hold true in my family and my husband’s family!

  4. rob says:

    Lots of last minute tax deductions!

  5. Matthew says:

    ^^^ Another July 12 birthday here Shell…

  6. Dave says:

    No registrations on Independence day…

  7. Angie says:

    I think it is bizarre that the birth rate goes down on major holidays – are those moms just crossing their legs so the baby won’t have to share their birthday with another big day?

    • Beth says:

      I think they probably get induced or are pushed into c-sections beforehand by docs who don’t want to work holidays.

      …which is awful since those are not risk-free procedures for moms or babies, but that’s how it is in the US at least. And which is probably why the US has an abysmal maternity mortality rate. It would be interesting to see where this graph is from. My guess is it’s from the US due to the spike right before July 4, and almost no births on our independence day.

  8. Maxine says:

    What’s with Feb. 14th? I hope people due in Feb. aren’t scheduling c-sections just to have a Valentine’s Day baby.

  9. Shelly says:

    I’m Sept 10, that’s an awfully dark box, but not as dark as the 9th lol

  10. T says:

    So you’re telling me that most babies are conceived September-December… :)

  11. Mervat Elgamal says:

    The comments regarding summer babies due to winter months means graphs needing to indicate upper himeshpere or lower one as this theory would only maifest if sticking to one hemisphere when gathering data.

  12. chikin says:

    May 22 here. my kids are May 28 and June 12, their dad is June 19 lol

  13. Brooke says:

    this graph looks pretty cool but I think it is based off of the chart from this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/19/business/20leonhardt-table.html?_r=2 where you can look up your own birthday and get the specific ranking.

    • Grammar whine says:

      Based *on*. Things are based ON other things. Take three seconds to visualize your metaphor. Here’s the base; here’s the thing upon it; the latter is based ON the former. I don’t know where “based off of” came from, but it needs to fall off its poor, misused base and slink away back into that swamp forever. That is all.

  14. Matt says:

    Another trend: people skipping the 13th of each month.

    I assume any day to day variations are due to scheduled births, not the closing of legs.

  15. P. says:

    The holiday behavior of doctors might explain the holiday effect a bit (but not the larger trend in DEC and very light of all of Jan, not just the beginning), but what of the holiday behavior of patients other than the notorious idea of ‘scheduling’? If you’re hanging around on a holiday enjoying the day or entertaining the relatives would you be more likely or less to delay doing to the hospital? Or would the activity (or eating) of the holidays give a bias to delivering slightly more quickly than otherwise thus a spike afterwards?
    And what would be the “holiday effect” at the end of November. No after or before holiday spike, yet a vague Thanksgiving low.
    Me? I’m pretty close to 9 months after my mom’s birthday. I’m thinking that might be a type of ‘holiday’ effect ;^)
    Certainly there must be something to fall/winter ‘snuggling’.

  16. lauren says:

    They’re all between july and october because of holidays!

  17. Miranda H. says:

    The trends in September don’t surprise me, lots of snuggling happening in December/January. I’m surprised not to see darker areas in early November due to Valentine’s day conceptions. Interesting graph.

  18. Marci says:

    I guess what surprises me is how few babies are born around my birthday in mid November. I mean it is 9 months after Valentines day and all…

    • I know a family with three sons who all have birthdays within a week’s span in mid-November. When I found that out, I told the mom, “You know you’re allowed to have sex at other times besides Valentine’s Day, right?”

      • Marci says:

        haha That’s funny! I still need therapy after the time my mom opened up about my conception. It involved a cold Valentines day after weeks of business trips for my dad. *shutter*

  19. Tim Coates says:

    What this doesn’t tell you is what the variation. The actual difference between “less common” and “more common” could be less than 1%. In this sense the presentation is misleading.

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