January 1 is the rarest January birthday in these historical U.S. records and one of the least common dates across the year. New Year's Day had 164,362 recorded births from 1994 through 2014, ranking #364 out of 366 birthday dates. Rank #1 means most common.
Its birth share is 0.192%, or about 1 in 521 recorded births. Only Christmas Day and leap day have lower totals in this sample.
January 1, beside other birthdays
Average recorded births each time a date occurred, 1994 through 2014.
- Commonness rank
- 364 / 366
- Share of recorded births
- 0.192 %
- Recorded births
- 164,362
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 January 1 and compare with a friend →Is January 1 rarer than December 31?
Yes, in these records. January 1 has fewer births than December 31, January 2 or January 8. The totals differ sharply across the year boundary. New Year's Eve and New Year's Day have different recorded birthday frequencies.
| Date | Recorded births | Commonness rank | Birth share |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 31 | 219,101 | 348 | 0.256% |
| January 1 | 164,362 | 364 | 0.192% |
| January 2 | 196,481 | 361 | 0.229% |
| January 8 | 223,766 | 343 | 0.261% |
| January 24 | 233,021 | 200 | 0.272% |
| December 25 | 138,628 | 365 | 0.162% |
All the selected dates occurred 21 times during the baseline. January 1 averages 7,826.8 births per actual occurrence. January 1's low total cannot be explained by fewer calendar appearances.
The January birthday guide includes the full month ranking. The December 31 guide examines the other side of the year boundary, where a neighboring-holiday comparison needs particular care.
Does the low count persist across years?
For annual comparisons, we use only SSA U.S. records from 2000 through 2014. Each January 1 is compared with January 8 and January 15 in its own year. Those dates are one week and two weeks later, so they share New Year's Day's weekday.
December 25 and December 18 of the previous year are excluded. Keeping the comparison inside each year avoids using Christmas as an ordinary comparison day and does not cross the source window's boundary.
January 1 averages 7,735.3 births in this SSA window, compared with 10,812.6 on the comparison dates. It is 28.5% below that average overall and lower in 14 of 15 years.
| Year | Weekday | Recorded births | Nearby mean | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Saturday | 9,083 | 8,729.5 | +4.0% |
| 2001 | Monday | 7,663 | 11,186.5 | -31.5% |
| 2002 | Tuesday | 7,927 | 12,442 | -36.3% |
| 2003 | Wednesday | 7,908 | 12,153.5 | -34.9% |
| 2004 | Thursday | 8,205 | 12,809 | -35.9% |
| 2005 | Saturday | 7,317 | 8,439 | -13.3% |
| 2006 | Sunday | 7,137 | 7,360.5 | -3.0% |
| 2007 | Monday | 7,322 | 12,067.5 | -39.3% |
| 2008 | Tuesday | 8,014 | 13,340 | -39.9% |
| 2009 | Thursday | 8,145 | 12,909.5 | -36.9% |
| 2010 | Friday | 7,871 | 12,230.5 | -35.6% |
| 2011 | Saturday | 7,254 | 7,825 | -7.3% |
| 2012 | Sunday | 6,629 | 6,893 | -3.8% |
| 2013 | Tuesday | 7,537 | 11,996.5 | -37.2% |
| 2014 | Wednesday | 8,018 | 11,807 | -32.1% |
The result is not lower in every year. The table includes that exception; the overall average is not a rule for every year.
Using January 8 alone produces a signed difference of -28.8%; using January 15 alone gives -28.1%. Both are negative. January 1 remains lower with either comparison week, although the exact gap changes.
Why are there fewer New Year's Day births?
The records show a difference, but do not establish a cause. Daily birth counts do not identify delivery method, planned delivery dates or family preferences. Matching weekdays reduces one calendar difference; it does not explain individual births.
The holiday birth study considers selected holiday dates with several nearby controls. It uses its own documented comparison design, so its figures should not be substituted for this page's annual result without checking the method.
What population do these odds describe?
The baseline uses 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 annual study uses SSA alone, and the systems differ in administrative coverage.
This is a ranking of historical recorded births. It does not measure everyone alive with a January 1 birthday or birthdays assigned in other administrative settings, and it is not a worldwide estimate. Birth share and date rank answer different questions: the first describes the fraction of births; the second compares the dates.
Read the methodology for the definitions, browse the full rare-birthday ranking, or use the birthday checker to compare January 1 with your birthday.
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