Most popular birthday revealed – and the least – where does your big day rank?
THE most and least popular birthdays have been revealed – and it seems people are friskiest at Christmas.
Analysts have crunched data on birthdays to reveal how many people on average are born on each day of the year.
The Office for National Statistics counted the number of live births in England and Wales every day between 2001 and 2021.
Statisticians found September 27 is the most common day to be born, while Boxing Day is the least common birthday.
September 27 has 1,993 births a year and is closely followed by September 24 at 1,987 births.
September 25 ranked third at 1,980, while October 1 and September 23 were both joint next at 1,979.
Analysts believe couples having more sex over the Christmas period could account for the popularity in September birthdays.
Another suggestion is that couples might plan to have children who are the oldest in their school year.
Boxing Day has a mere 1,345 births recorded on average each year, followed by Christmas Day at 1,416 birthdays and New Year’s Day with 1,563.
December 27 and 28 round out the top five least common birthdays, with 1,650 and 1,722 births a day respectively.
MailOnline reported that the “ONS has previously stated births over the Bank Holiday-laden festive period are least common”.
This is because “NHS hospitals will generally only deliver natural births and emergency C-sections”.
Hilariously, April Fool’s Day is the sixth least common birthday as experts predict parents want to avoid having a baby on April 1 where possible.
Leap year phenomenon February 29 ranks as the 11th least common birthday.
The news comes as separate ONS figures today showed more babies are being born to unmarried couples than at any time since records began.
The number registered in England and Wales stood at 624,828 in 2021 – but 320,713, more than half at 51.3%, were to women not wed or in a civil partnership.
The ONS said it was the first year this had happened since records were first compiled in 1845.
The statistics reflect declining marriage rates and increasing numbers of cohabitees who registered 36.5% of births in 2021 compared to 31.2% in 2011.