December 26 is a rare birthday in these U.S. records from 1994 through 2014. It ranks #360 of 366 dates by total births, where #1 means most common. Only Christmas Eve and Christmas Day have lower December totals.
The records contain 201,577 December 26 births: 0.235% of the selected sample, or about 1 in 425. This is a historical U.S. birth share, not a worldwide probability or a count of living people.
December 26, beside other birthdays
Average recorded births each time a date occurred, 1994 through 2014.
- Commonness rank
- 360 / 366
- Share of recorded births
- 0.235 %
- Recorded births
- 201,577
Bars start at zero. Rank 1 means most common and uses total births across all 366 dates. The bars use births per actual occurrence; February 29 appeared five times, while the other dates appeared 21 times.
Check December 26 and compare with a friend →How uncommon is the day after Christmas?
December 26 ranks 29 of the month's 31 dates. It averaged 9,598.9 recorded births across 21 actual occurrences. The dates around Christmas have different totals, even though they are close together.
| Date | Recorded births | Commonness rank | Birth share |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 23 | 218,051 | 351 | 0.254% |
| December 24 | 170,166 | 363 | 0.199% |
| December 25 | 138,628 | 365 | 0.162% |
| December 26 | 201,577 | 360 | 0.235% |
| December 27 | 246,214 | 56 | 0.287% |
| January 2 | 196,481 | 361 | 0.229% |
The December guide has the full month ranking. The Christmas Eve and Christmas Day pages examine those dates separately.
Does the low count remain after matching weekdays?
In the SSA 2000 through 2014 records, December 26 was below its nearby same-weekday mean in all 15 years. Its pooled difference was -19.1%.
| Year | Weekday | Recorded births | Nearby mean | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Tuesday | 10,395 | 13,728 | -24.3% |
| 2001 | Wednesday | 11,040 | 13,144 | -16.0% |
| 2002 | Thursday | 11,242 | 13,257.5 | -15.2% |
| 2003 | Friday | 10,431 | 13,088.5 | -20.3% |
| 2004 | Sunday | 7,087 | 7,600.5 | -6.8% |
| 2005 | Monday | 8,505 | 12,952 | -34.3% |
| 2006 | Tuesday | 11,087 | 14,600.5 | -24.1% |
| 2007 | Wednesday | 12,306 | 14,423.5 | -14.7% |
| 2008 | Friday | 10,890 | 13,455 | -19.1% |
| 2009 | Saturday | 7,172 | 8,259 | -13.2% |
| 2010 | Sunday | 6,796 | 7,195.5 | -5.6% |
| 2011 | Monday | 8,039 | 12,397.5 | -35.2% |
| 2012 | Wednesday | 11,362 | 13,758 | -17.4% |
| 2013 | Thursday | 11,375 | 12,902.5 | -11.8% |
| 2014 | Friday | 10,386 | 12,357.5 | -16.0% |
The eligible comparison dates are December 12 and 19 in each year. They fall exactly fourteen and seven days earlier, so each shares December 26's weekday. Dates seven or fourteen days later are in January of the following year and are outside this same-year comparison.
The one-week-only difference is -20.7%; the two-week-only difference is -17.5%. Both show fewer births on December 26, though the size of the gap changes. Using only earlier dates also leaves possible late-December differences beyond weekdays, so these percentages are descriptive comparisons rather than a measured holiday effect.
What about years when Christmas is observed on December 26?
OPM's standard federal calendar usually moves a Sunday holiday to Monday for employees with a Monday through Friday schedule. December 26 was that Christmas observance date in 2005, 2011.
In those 2 events, the combined difference from matched nearby dates was -34.7%. The other 13 years had a difference of -16.6%.
| Calendar group | Years | Occurrences | Births per occurrence | Control mean | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Target is the federal observed date | 2005, 2011 | 2 | 8,272 | 12,674.8 | -34.7% |
| Other years | 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014 | 13 | 10,120.7 | 12,136.2 | -16.6% |
The date is lower in both groups. These observance rules apply to federal employees. They do not tell us every hospital's schedule. We cannot tell from birth totals why deliveries occurred on December 26 or quantify the role of scheduling.
These records also cannot answer a Boxing Day question about another country. A holiday name does not make U.S. counts representative of that country's births.
Sources and comparison method
The ranking and share use FiveThirtyEight's daily U.S. birth files. We select CDC/NCHS 1994 through 1999 and SSA 2000 through 2014, excluding overlapping CDC years. Administrative coverage differs, so all annual weekday and observance comparisons use SSA alone.
Each year's comparison mean gives December 12 and 19 equal weight. The pooled percentage divides summed December 26 births by summed annual means, then subtracts one. Holiday-sensitive candidate controls are excluded; the date-analysis download records exact eligibility and boundary exclusions.
Read the methodology for definitions, or check December 26 and compare it with a friend.