Ever wondered about the most popular birth month? Turns out that if you have an August birthday, you have plenty of company. From 2010 to 2020, summer months were the most common time to have a child in the United States, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Interestingly, August deliveries were the most common in eight of those years, followed by July births in the other three. Since the full course of pregnancy is normally about 40 weeks, the data suggests that November and December are the most popular times to conceive a child in the United States.
Oh, baby:
- A 2014 study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences noted a clear pattern of births across latitudes in the U.S. Births peak in June and July in northern states, and in October and November in southern states.
- The study found a similar pattern across the Northern Hemisphere, with higher birth rates later in the year in locations closer to the equator. For example, Finland’s births peaked in late April, while Jamaica's births peaked in November.
- Researchers in the United Kingdom found that babies born in the summer months (June, July and August), had a higher average birth weight than babies born in other months. Summer babies also tended to be taller as adults.