Not in these historical U.S. records. February 22 sits near the middle of the 366-date ranking. It ranks #182 of 366 dates by total births from 1994 through 2014. Rank #1 means most common.
February 22 had 234,170 births across 21 occurrences, or 11,151 births per occurrence. That is 0.273% of the 85,712,738-birth sample, or about 1 in 366 recorded births.
Within February, February 22 ranks fourth of 29 dates.
Does February 22 differ from nearby same-weekday dates?
Not clearly. In SSA 2000–2014, the primary comparison gives +0.6%. The three comparisons with holiday exclusions all stay within 1% of the controls.
When the weekdays match, February 22 looks much like the dates around it.
In the primary comparison, February 22 was above its controls in nine years and below them in six.
Baseline ranks use historical U.S. CDC/NCHS and SSA records, 1994–2014. The percentage differences use SSA 2000–2014 alone. Each table row compares February 22 with controls from the same year.
| Comparison | Years | Control observations | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 and 14 days, holidays excluded (primary) | 15 | 59 | +0.6% |
| 7 days only | 15 | 29 | +0.5% |
| 14 days only | 15 | 30 | +0.7% |
| 7 and 14 days, no holiday exclusions | 15 | 60 | +0.7% |
How were the comparison dates chosen?
The primary controls are February 8, February 15, March 1, and March 8 in the same year. In leap years, the later controls are February 29 and March 7. Each is 7 or 14 days from February 22, so it falls on the same weekday.
In some years, a planned control falls on Washington’s Birthday. We remove that control under the standard observed federal holiday rules. The year keeps its other controls.
The federal holiday named Washington’s Birthday is the third Monday in February. It falls from February 15 through 21, so it is never February 22.
By five-year period, the primary differences are +1.3% for 2000–2004, -0.2% for 2005–2009, and +0.9% for 2010–2014.
To combine the years, we divide the summed target births by the summed annual control means. Then we subtract one and multiply by 100. The result is not an average of annual percentages.
Does the February 22 rank change over time?
Yes. We ranked 365 recurring dates by SSA births in each five-year period. February 22 placed #279 in 2000–2004, #131 in 2005–2009, and #104 in 2010–2014. The three ranks span 175 places.
The median span for all 365 recurring dates is 159 places. This span is above that median.
Each period has only five occurrences of February 22. It fell on a weekend twice in 2000–2004 and once in each other period. The period with more weekend occurrences has the less common rank.
These ranks use raw birth counts. The ranking-stability study also compares annual shares and weekday-relative scores for every date.
Sources and limits
Baseline totals and ranks use FiveThirtyEight’s pinned U.S. birth files. We use CDC/NCHS for 1994–1999 and SSA for 2000–2014, so no year comes from both sources. Annual comparisons use SSA alone.
The source series have different administrative coverage. These records do not describe worldwide births, everyone alive today, or current birth rates.
The daily totals do not record delivery methods or scheduling decisions. Weekday matching does not remove every seasonal difference. Federal holiday rules identify calendar dates, not hospital schedules.
Use the February guide for the full month ranking. Compare the nearby February 14 and February 28 studies.
The methodology explains ranks and shares. Use the birthday checker to compare another date.