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Louis Dor
Sep 17, 2015
If your birthday was on Wednesday, congratulations - it's the most popular (at least if you're from the United States).
The most common birthday of the year is 16 September, according to data from Harvard University.
The most and least popular birthdays don’t differ greatly in terms of the numbers of actual births over the 27 years of the study period, with the exception of 29 February - the least popular day for obvious reasons.
The data was compiled by the Harvard economist Amitabh Chandra, and it showed that other than the leap day, 1 January was the least common.
There were notably more conceptions in the winter as births in the summer and autumn were the most popular.
A 2013 study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology suggested that the variation in birth rates were accounted for by planned pregnancies.
In addition, the quality of sperm varies with seasons. A study of nearly 6,500 human sperm samples in 2013 found that fertility increased for samples taken in winter and spring, which could contribute to the increased birthrate in summer.
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