Is May 16 a rare birthday? Ordinary
More common than 55% of all 366 dates.
May 16 in numbers
The odds, the star sign and the other dates that come with it.
Where May 16 ranks
From most common birthday to rarest, May 16 ranks in position #164, with 10,861 births a year. 202 other dates are rarer. 75 dates are within 1% of its count, anywhere from #129 to #204, so the exact position is a close thing.
May 16 through the years
Where it ranked in the United States, year by year.
common
May 16 in other countries
May 16 is the 164th most common birthday in the United States. It is among the 50 most common in 2 of the 26 other countries, and ranges from #36 in Ecuador to #318 in New Zealand.
Ecuador
#36 of 366
800 births on an average May 16
INEC, 2013–2023Norway
#38 of 366
169 births on an average May 16
SSB, 2011–2025Slovenia
#53 of 366
57 births on an average May 16
SURS, 2000–2025Portugal
#57 of 366
307 births on an average May 16
INE Portugal, 1980–2025Brazil
#58 of 366
8,540 births on an average May 16
DATASUS, 1997–2024Argentina
#88 of 366
1,608 births on an average May 16
DEIS, 2018–2023Switzerland
#91 of 366
227 births on an average May 16
FSO, 1969–2025Peru
#105 of 366
1,229 births on an average May 16
INEI, 2019–2025Japan
#122 of 366
2,826 births on an average May 16
e-Stat, 1996–2025Malaysia
#125 of 366
1,411 births on an average May 16
DOSM, 2000–2022Ireland
#131 of 366
170 births on an average May 16
CSO, 1980–2023England & Wales
#133 of 366
1,804 births on an average May 16
ONS, 1995–2025Costa Rica
#164 of 366
168 births on an average May 16
INEC Costa Rica, 2014–2024France
#180 of 366
2,149 births on an average May 16
INSEE, 1998–2024Germany
#190 of 366
2,008 births on an average May 16
Destatis, 2014–2025Philippines
#203 of 366
4,404 births on an average May 16
PSA, 2006–2024Hungary
#215 of 366
325 births on an average May 16
KSH, 1970–2020Mexico
#218 of 366
4,935 births on an average May 16
INEGI, 2017–2023Denmark
#228 of 366
162 births on an average May 16
Statistics Denmark, 2007–2025Netherlands
#230 of 366
491 births on an average May 16
CBS, 1995–2025Guatemala
#231 of 366
934 births on an average May 16
INE Guatemala, 2018–2024Latvia
#237 of 366
53 births on an average May 16
CSB, 1996–2025Chile
#262 of 366
680 births on an average May 16
DEIS, 1990–2017Finland
#262 of 366
137 births on an average May 16
Statistics Finland, 2010–2025Belgium
#263 of 366
320 births on an average May 16
Statbel, 1992–2025New Zealand
#318 of 366
153 births on an average May 16
Stats NZ, 1980–2023
Famous people born on May 16
Ranked by how often people looked them up on Wikipedia last year.
Pierce BrosnanIrish actor · born 1953
Megan FoxAmerican actress · born 1986
Melanie LynskeyNew Zealand actress · born 1977
Tucker CarlsonAmerican conservative political commentator · born 1969
Thomas Brodie-SangsterEnglish actor · born 1990
Janet JacksonAmerican singer, songwriter, and dancer · born 1966
Danny TrejoAmerican actor · born 1944
Henry FondaAmerican actor · born 1905May against the other eleven
May 16 is the 8th most common of the 31 days in May. All May birthdays.
May is the 6th most common month of the year
An average May day sees 10,702 births in the United States. September is the busiest month, January the quietest.
Quick answers
How many babies are born on May 16?
About 10,861 a year in the United States. It was at its most common in 1995, when 12,101 babies were born and it ranked #71 of 365; at its rarest in 1971, with 7,932 births at #358.
Is May 16 a common birthday?
In the United States, May 16 is the 164th most common of 366 dates, with about 10,861 births a year. That makes it an ordinary birthday: neither rare nor especially common.
What is the rarest May birthday?
In the United States, May 27: the 20th rarest of all 366 dates, with about 10,322 births a year. The most common May birthday is May 24, the 105th most common of the year.
How precise is the ranking?
In the middle of the calendar it is not exact. 75 other dates are within 1% of May 16's count, spread from #129 to #204, so the position inside that group would shift with a different set of years. That band is the accurate answer; the rank is the simple one. At the ends — Christmas Day, New Year's Day — nothing is close.
Is May 16 rarer in other countries?
In some. It is rarer in 13 of the 26 other countries we hold daily records for. It is at its rarest in New Zealand, at #318 of 366, and at its most common in Ecuador, at #36.
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