No. February 3 had 228,433 recorded U.S. births from 1994 through 2014. The claim that nobody has ever been born on February 3 is false. This historical sample alone contains births on every February 3 it covers.
February 3 ranks #295 out of 366 birthday dates by total recorded births, where #1 means most common. Its share is 0.267%, or about 1 in 375 recorded births. It is less common than most dates in this sample. There are still thousands of recorded births on it each year.
February 3, beside other birthdays
Average recorded births each time a date occurred, 1994 through 2014.
- Commonness rank
- 295 / 366
- Share of recorded births
- 0.267 %
- Recorded births
- 228,433
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 February 3 and compare with a friend →What does the birth count tell us?
The total spans 21 actual February 3 dates. Dividing by those occurrences gives 10,877.8 recorded births per February 3 on average. That is an average across the historical period, not the number born on the date this year.
A list of famous February 3 birthdays can disprove the claim too, but the birth files give a direct test: they record how many births occurred on the date. Positive counts settle the question without relying on a celebrity list or a story about where the rumor started.
Is February 3 unusually quiet for early February?
February 3 has a lower total than February 2 and February 4, but the nearby dates all record substantial numbers of births. February 14 has a higher total. February 29 has a much lower total, partly because it appears in only five of these years.
| Date | Recorded births | Commonness rank | Birth share |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 1 | 230,364 | 249 | 0.269% |
| February 2 | 230,984 | 237 | 0.269% |
| February 3 | 228,433 | 295 | 0.267% |
| February 4 | 229,815 | 265 | 0.268% |
| February 14 | 245,412 | 62 | 0.286% |
| February 29 | 52,561 | 366 | 0.061% |
The February birthday guide includes every date in the month. This selection answers the narrower February 3 question; it does not replace the month ranking.
What happens in individual years?
The table below uses only SSA U.S. records from 2000 through 2014, so the annual comparison does not cross the change between source systems. Every February 3 in this window has recorded births.
We compare each February 3 with January 20, January 27, February 10 and February 17 in the same year. These are two weeks and one week before and after, so they share February 3's weekday. This helps separate a date's calendar position from the general difference between weekdays and weekends.
Across the period, February 3 averages 10,883.6 births, compared with 10,891.4 for those neighboring dates. The signed difference is -0.1%, close to zero. February 3 is below its comparison in 9 years and above it in 6.
| Year | Weekday | Recorded births | Nearby mean | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Thursday | 12,062 | 12,511.5 | -3.6% |
| 2001 | Saturday | 8,650 | 8,741.5 | -1.0% |
| 2002 | Sunday | 7,442 | 7,506.3 | -0.9% |
| 2003 | Monday | 11,498 | 11,291.5 | +1.8% |
| 2004 | Tuesday | 13,211 | 12,907.8 | +2.3% |
| 2005 | Thursday | 12,638 | 12,777.5 | -1.1% |
| 2006 | Friday | 13,089 | 13,118.3 | -0.2% |
| 2007 | Saturday | 8,821 | 8,726.3 | +1.1% |
| 2008 | Sunday | 7,616 | 7,601.8 | +0.2% |
| 2009 | Tuesday | 13,330 | 13,201.3 | +1.0% |
| 2010 | Wednesday | 12,453 | 12,556 | -0.8% |
| 2011 | Thursday | 11,917 | 12,221.3 | -2.5% |
| 2012 | Friday | 11,826 | 11,882 | -0.5% |
| 2013 | Sunday | 6,876 | 6,924 | -0.7% |
| 2014 | Monday | 11,825 | 11,403.8 | +3.7% |
Using only the one-week neighbors gives -0.5%; using only the two-week neighbors gives +0.3%. These small differences change sign with the comparison week. February 3 is close to its nearby weekday averages, and its recorded births disprove the empty-day claim.
Sources and what the odds mean
The baseline comes from daily U.S. birth records compiled by FiveThirtyEight: CDC/NCHS for 1994 through 1999 and SSA for 2000 through 2014. Overlapping CDC years are excluded. The source systems differ in administrative coverage.
Birth share divides February 3's count by all births in the selected records. Rank compares dates, while 1-in odds describe the share of births. Neither measures the number of living people with this birthday or its frequency worldwide. See the methodology for the calculations and the full rare-birthday ranking for the rest of the calendar.
Use the birthday checker to compare February 3 with your own birthday.
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