Is January 1 a rare birthday? Very rare
Rarer than 99% of all 366 dates.
New Year's Day is one of the quietest birthdays of the year: hospitals postpone as many deliveries as they can.
New Year's Day in numbers
The odds, the star sign and the other dates that come with it.
Where January 1 ranks
From most common birthday to rarest, January 1 ranks in position #365, with 7,731 births a year. 364 other dates are more common.
January 1 through the years
Where it ranked in the United States, year by year.
common
January 1 in other countries
January 1 is the 2nd rarest birthday in the United States. It is among the 50 rarest in 24 of the 26 other countries, and ranges from #250 in the Philippines to #366 in 4 countries.
Philippines
#250 of 366
4,331 births on an average January 1
PSA, 2006–2024Malaysia
#311 of 366
1,352 births on an average January 1
DOSM, 2000–2022Norway
#346 of 366
129 births on an average January 1
SSB, 2011–2025Finland
#355 of 366
126 births on an average January 1
Statistics Finland, 2010–2025Argentina
#362 of 366
1,043 births on an average January 1
DEIS, 2018–2023Guatemala
#362 of 366
796 births on an average January 1
INE Guatemala, 2018–2024Ireland
#362 of 366
142 births on an average January 1
CSO, 1980–2023Brazil
#363 of 366
5,880 births on an average January 1
DATASUS, 1997–2024Germany
#363 of 366
1,501 births on an average January 1
Destatis, 2014–2025Portugal
#363 of 366
237 births on an average January 1
INE Portugal, 1980–2025Slovenia
#363 of 366
43 births on an average January 1
SURS, 2000–2025Belgium
#364 of 366
206 births on an average January 1
Statbel, 1992–2025Denmark
#364 of 366
120 births on an average January 1
Statistics Denmark, 2007–2025England & Wales
#364 of 366
1,526 births on an average January 1
ONS, 1995–2025Mexico
#364 of 366
3,552 births on an average January 1
INEGI, 2017–2023New Zealand
#364 of 366
137 births on an average January 1
Stats NZ, 1980–2023Chile
#365 of 366
432 births on an average January 1
DEIS, 1990–2017France
#365 of 366
1,692 births on an average January 1
INSEE, 1998–2024Latvia
#365 of 366
37 births on an average January 1
CSB, 1996–2025Netherlands
#365 of 366
360 births on an average January 1
CBS, 1995–2025Peru
#365 of 366
930 births on an average January 1
INEI, 2019–2025Switzerland
#365 of 366
172 births on an average January 1
FSO, 1969–2025Costa Rica
#366 of 366
131 births on an average January 1
INEC Costa Rica, 2014–2024Ecuador
#366 of 366
525 births on an average January 1
INEC, 2013–2023Hungary
#366 of 366
261 births on an average January 1
KSH, 1970–2020Japan
#366 of 366
1,877 births on an average January 1
e-Stat, 1996–2025
Famous people born on New Year's Day
Ranked by how often people looked them up on Wikipedia last year.
J. Edgar HooverAmerican law enforcement administrator · born 1895
Ice SpiceAmerican rapper · born 2000
Morris ChestnutAmerican actor · born 1969
PoppyAmerican singer and songwriter · born 1995
Pope Alexander VIHead of the Catholic Church from 1492 to 1503 · born 1431
Noah KahanAmerican singer-songwriter · born 1997
Elin NordegrenSwedish model and nanny · born 1980
Frank LangellaAmerican actor · born 1938January against the other eleven
January 1 is the rarest of the 31 days in January. All January birthdays.
January is the rarest month of the year
An average January day sees 10,394 births in the United States. September is the busiest month, January the quietest.
Quick answers
Is New Year's Day a rare birthday?
Yes. In US birth records New Year's Day is the second-rarest birthday, just behind Christmas. Wards run a holiday schedule, so fewer babies arrive on 1 January than on an ordinary Wednesday in September.
How many babies are born on January 1?
About 7,731 a year in the United States. It was at its most common in 2020, when 7,644 babies were born and it ranked #283 of 366; at its rarest in 1975, with 7,028 births at #364.
Is January 1 a common birthday?
In the United States, January 1 is the 2nd rarest of 366 dates, with about 7,731 births a year. That puts it on the rarer side of the calendar.
What is the rarest January birthday?
In the United States, January 1: the 2nd rarest of all 366 dates, with about 7,731 births a year. The most common January birthday is January 4, the 179th most common of the year.
How precise is the ranking?
For January 1 the rank is stable. Only this date sits 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 January 1 rarer in other countries?
In some. It is rarer in 4 of the 26 other countries we hold daily records for. It is at its rarest in 4 countries, at #366 of 366, and at its most common in the Philippines, at #250.
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