The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has pulled together a huge packet of birth statistics from 2005....
- The highest amount of births occur on Tuesdays, while births on Sundays are the least common. Tuesdays were also the most popular birthday in 2004, so there must be something about them. The CDC report notes that some of this does have to do with scheduled deliveries, with c-sections being far less likely on weekends.
- More babies arrive in August than any other month, although other warm months are close behind, such as July and early September. This may be that people are planning births to fall in the summer months, perhaps when their workloads are less. If you're having a baby in February, he'll be a wee bit more original - February was the least likely month for a baby to arrive.
- The rate of labor induction rose 5% from 2004 while c-section rates grew to a whopping 30+ % (the all time U.S. high).
- In 2005 there were 2,118,982 male babies born and 2,019,367 females born.
- Observed fertility rates were highest in September and lowest in January.
- AZ, NM, TX, OK, AR, MS, TN, DC, GA, and SC had the ten highest birth rates of the country. My state, OR actually fell into a lower than average range, which surprised me because it seems like everyone is having a baby.
- There was a significant increase in babies born to unwed mothers.
