Somewhat. May 29 is in the less common part of the calendar in these historical U.S. records. It ranks #312 of 366 dates by total births from 1994 through 2014. Rank #1 means most common.
May 29 had 227,287 births across 21 occurrences, or 10,823 births per occurrence. That is 0.265% of the 85,712,738-birth sample, or about 1 in 377 recorded births.
It ranks #25 of the 31 May dates.
What happens when May 29 is Memorial Day?
In SSA 2000–2014, May 29 was Memorial Day twice, in 2000 and 2006. In those years, it had 32.9% fewer births than nearby same-weekday dates.
In the other 13 years, May 29 had 0.5% more births than its controls. The lower full-period result comes from the holiday years, not from every May 29.
Across all 15 years, the primary comparison gives -4.3%. With only the 7-day or only the 14-day controls, the results are -4.4% and -4.1%.
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 May 29 with controls from the same year.
| Comparison | Years | Control observations | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 and 14 days, holidays excluded (primary) | 15 | 60 | -4.3% |
| 7 days only | 15 | 30 | -4.4% |
| 14 days only | 15 | 30 | -4.1% |
| 7 and 14 days, no holiday exclusions | 15 | 60 | -4.3% |
| Memorial Day years only | 2 | 8 | -32.9% |
| Other years only | 13 | 52 | +0.5% |
How were the comparison dates chosen?
The primary controls are May 15, May 22, June 5, and June 12 in the same year. Each is 7 or 14 days from May 29, so it falls on the same weekday.
None of these controls fell on an excluded holiday. We exclude holidays under the standard observed federal holiday rules. We also exclude Christmas Eve, December 26, and the Friday after Thanksgiving.
By five-year period, the primary differences are -5.3% for 2000–2004, -8.3% for 2005–2009, and +1.6% 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 May 29 rank change over time?
Somewhat, but less than most dates. We ranked 365 recurring dates by SSA births in each five-year period. May 29 placed #233 in 2000–2004, #287 in 2005–2009, and #250 in 2010–2014. The three ranks span 54 places.
The median span for all 365 recurring dates is 159 places. This span is below that median.
Each period has only five occurrences of May 29. The number of weekend occurrences does not explain this movement on its own.
May 29 was Memorial Day once in 2000–2004, once in 2005–2009, and never in 2010–2014.
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 May guide for the full month ranking. See also the May 5 study.
The Memorial Day birth study follows every actual Memorial Day.
The methodology explains ranks and shares. Use the birthday checker to compare another date.