surprising facts about birth in the United States

ore than 4 million babies are born in the United States each year, and the details of how, when, and where they arrive are always shifting.

The biggest recent news is that birth rates slumped almost 2 percent in 2008, falling from an all-time U.S. high of more than 4.3 million babies born in 2007. Many blame the tumultuous economy for the drop, the first since the decade began.


Read on for more fascinating facts. Note: Most of the ones in this article come from CDC data, which takes years to compile and analyze. That's why much of the latest info – released in January 2009 – is from 2006.
We also pulled a few interesting stats from the U.S. Census Bureau reports, "Maternity Leave and Employment Patterns: 1961-2003" and "America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2008."
When and where U.S. babies are born

    Midweek delivery: The most popular day for babies to make their entrance? It's now Wednesday. (This is the first year since at least 1990 that Tuesday wasn't the biggest birth day.) There were 15.4 percent more births on Wednesday than on the average day.
    Sunday is the slowest day, with 35.1 fewer births than average. The fact that far fewer babies were born on the weekend may be influenced partly by scheduled labor induction and c-sections, according to the CDC. But vaginal births also occur less often on the weekend.
    Some like it hot: More newborns arrive during the late summer and early fall months of July, August, and September than any other time of the year. In 2006, August hosted the most U.S. baby births.
    Paul Sutton, a demographer for the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, says it makes sense if you think about what happens nine months earlier in most of the country – the weather gets colder and people spend more time indoors snuggling with their sweeties.
    Also, some people plan their baby's birth to coincide with summer vacation, especially teachers and others who get summers off. August had the most birthdays in 2006 at around 388,000, and February had the fewest at about 319,000.
    Baby bumps: In 2006, the states with the highest birth rate increases were Mississippi and Louisiana, with increases of 9 and 10 percent. (Significant declines were seen in these states in 2005, when populations shifted after Hurricane Katrina.)
    The number of births rose in 37 states and the District of Columbia in 2006, while in the remaining states the birth rate numbers remained basically the same as the previous year. Utah continues to beat every other state, with about 21 babies born per 1,000 people. Vermont has the lowest birth rate, with slightly more than 10 babies born per 1,000 people.

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