Is December 31 a rare birthday? Rare
Rarer than 96% of all 366 dates.
New Year's Eve is quieter than mid-December, then New Year's Day falls off a cliff.
New Year's Eve in numbers
The odds, the star sign and the other dates that come with it.
Where December 31 ranks
From most common birthday to rarest, December 31 ranks in position #350, with 10,151 births a year. 349 other dates are more common.
December 31 through the years
Where it ranked in the United States, year by year.
common
December 31 in other countries
December 31 is the 17th rarest birthday in the United States. It is among the 50 rarest in 23 of the 26 other countries, and ranges from #116 in New Zealand to #366 in Guatemala.
New Zealand
#116 of 366
159 births on an average December 31
Stats NZ, 1980–2023England & Wales
#170 of 366
1,790 births on an average December 31
ONS, 1995–2025Ireland
#283 of 366
164 births on an average December 31
CSO, 1980–2023France
#355 of 366
1,977 births on an average December 31
INSEE, 1998–2024Slovenia
#355 of 366
46 births on an average December 31
SURS, 2000–2025Chile
#357 of 366
522 births on an average December 31
DEIS, 1990–2017Malaysia
#357 of 366
1,302 births on an average December 31
DOSM, 2000–2022Belgium
#359 of 366
252 births on an average December 31
Statbel, 1992–2025Denmark
#362 of 366
131 births on an average December 31
Statistics Denmark, 2007–2025Finland
#362 of 366
118 births on an average December 31
Statistics Finland, 2010–2025Germany
#362 of 366
1,610 births on an average December 31
Destatis, 2014–2025Hungary
#362 of 366
283 births on an average December 31
KSH, 1970–2020Netherlands
#362 of 366
435 births on an average December 31
CBS, 1995–2025Portugal
#362 of 366
254 births on an average December 31
INE Portugal, 1980–2025Switzerland
#362 of 366
185 births on an average December 31
FSO, 1969–2025Mexico
#363 of 366
3,828 births on an average December 31
INEGI, 2017–2023Norway
#363 of 366
110 births on an average December 31
SSB, 2011–2025Brazil
#364 of 366
5,868 births on an average December 31
DATASUS, 1997–2024Costa Rica
#364 of 366
134 births on an average December 31
INEC Costa Rica, 2014–2024Japan
#364 of 366
1,977 births on an average December 31
e-Stat, 1996–2025Latvia
#364 of 366
39 births on an average December 31
CSB, 1996–2025Peru
#364 of 366
992 births on an average December 31
INEI, 2019–2025Argentina
#365 of 366
868 births on an average December 31
DEIS, 2018–2023Ecuador
#365 of 366
531 births on an average December 31
INEC, 2013–2023Philippines
#365 of 366
3,952 births on an average December 31
PSA, 2006–2024Guatemala
#366 of 366
670 births on an average December 31
INE Guatemala, 2018–2024
Famous people born on New Year's Eve
Ranked by how often people looked them up on Wikipedia last year.
Val KilmerAmerican actor · born 1959
Alex FergusonScottish football manager · born 1941
Charles Edward StuartJacobite leader · born 1720
Taylor HackfordAmerican film director · born 1944
Henri MatisseFrench artist · born 1869
George C. MarshallAmerican politician and United States Army general · born 1880
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess CornwallisBritish Army officer · born 1738
Simon WiesenthalAustrian Nazi hunter · born 1908December against the other eleven
December 31 is the 5th rarest of the 31 days in December. All December birthdays.
December is the 4th rarest month of the year
An average December day sees 10,633 births in the United States. September is the busiest month, January the quietest.
Quick answers
Is New Year's Eve a rare birthday?
Yes. 31 December is one of the twenty rarest US birthdays. The deepest trough comes a day later: New Year's Day is the second-rarest birthday of the year.
How many babies are born on December 31?
About 10,151 a year in the United States. It was at its most common in 1969, when 11,122 babies were born and it ranked #11 of 365; at its rarest in 1995, with 7,596 births at #359.
Is December 31 a common birthday?
In the United States, December 31 is the 17th rarest of 366 dates, with about 10,151 births a year. That puts it on the rarer side of the calendar.
What is the rarest December birthday?
In the United States, December 25: the rarest of all 366 dates, with about 6,546 births a year. The most common December birthday is December 28, the 6th most common of the year.
How precise is the ranking?
For December 31 the rank is stable. Only 2 dates sit within 1% of its count, so the order does not depend on which years you count. In the crowded middle, dozens of dates can sit within a single percent of each other.
Is December 31 rarer in other countries?
In some. It is rarer in 23 of the 26 other countries we hold daily records for. It is at its rarest in Guatemala, at #366 of 366, and at its most common in New Zealand, at #116.
How this is counted
Every date is ranked by how many babies are born on it in the United States. Live births by day of birth from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, 1989–2024.
Updated October 2026