birthday traffic

How common is a January 16 birthday?

Published by Birthday Traffic · · Sources and method

January 16

Rare

Rarer than 92.9%of other birthday dates.

1 in 383births in this sample share your birthday.

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  • 10,669births in an average year21 years observed
  • 95%of a typical day11,175 births on an average day
  • #12 of 12January as a month10,721 births per day
  • −8.5%share of births, then to nowfirst five vs last five observed years

January 16 is the 340th most common birthday of the 366 dates in this collection, and the 26th rarest. It records 224,055 births out of 85,712,738, so roughly 1 in 383 people in this sample were born on it. That total is shared with April 6, so both dates hold the same rank.

It is more common than 6.8% of the other 365 dates and rarer than 92.9%, with 0.3% tied, which puts it in the top 10% rarest birthdays. It records 95.5% of an average day’s count in the sample.

January 16 among all 366 dates

All 366 dates sorted from most to least common by recorded U.S. births 1994–2014, coloured by rarity tier, with January 16 marked.

January 16 among all 366 datesAll 366 dates sorted from most to least common by recorded U.S. births 1994–2014, coloured by rarity tier, with January 16 marked.0100,000200,000300,000Very common: 91 dates, ranks #1–#91Very commonCommon: 92 dates, ranks #92–#183CommonUncommon: 147 dates, ranks #184–#330UncommonRare: 18 dates, ranks #331–#348Very rare: 15 dates, ranks #349–#363Super rare: 3 dates, ranks #364–#366#340 January 16: 224,055January 16 · #340 of 366most commonleast common
Very common 91Common 92Uncommon 147Rare 18Very rare 15Super rare 3All 366 dates from most to least common, coloured by the six rarity tiers; January 16 is marked. Recorded U.S. births, 1994–2014.

January 16 against the days around it

Recorded U.S. births, January window, 1994–2014
DateTotal birthsRank of 366
January 13223,803#342
January 14231,343#230
January 15222,374#346
January 16 (this date)224,055#340
January 17230,038#258
January 18229,465#279
January 19225,387#330

January as a whole records 10,721 births per day, ranked #12 of 12 months. Month ranking · January 15 · January 17

Has January 16 changed over time?

Annual U.S. birth totals changed across this window, so a raw daily count moves with the size of the year. The chart uses each year's share of that year's births instead, in births per 100,000. Averaged over the first five observed years it is 268.8 per 100,000; over the last five, 246.0 per 100,000 (-8.5%).

January 16 as a share of each year’s U.S. births, 1994–2014

Births on January 16 per 100,000 births in that year, one point per year, with the change of source at 2000 marked and the first-five and last-five year means drawn as bands.

January 16 as a share of each year’s U.S. births, 1994–2014Births on January 16 per 100,000 births in that year, one point per year, with the change of source at 2000 marked and the first-five and last-five year means drawn as bands.150200250300350SSA file from 2000first five: 268.8last five: 246.019941996199820002002200420062008201020122014per 100,000, 1994: 205.5 per 100,000per 100,000, 1995: 267.1 per 100,000per 100,000, 1996: 287.3 per 100,000per 100,000, 1997: 291.5 per 100,000per 100,000, 1998: 292.7 per 100,000per 100,000, 1999: 213.3 per 100,000per 100,000, 2000: 184.5 per 100,000per 100,000, 2001: 299.9 per 100,000per 100,000, 2002: 292.6 per 100,000per 100,000, 2003: 291.5 per 100,000per 100,000, 2004: 296.7 per 100,000per 100,000, 2005: 170.8 per 100,000per 100,000, 2006: 264.7 per 100,000per 100,000, 2007: 292.8 per 100,000per 100,000, 2008: 305.8 per 100,000per 100,000, 2009: 299.3 per 100,000per 100,000, 2010: 198.0 per 100,000per 100,000, 2011: 175.8 per 100,000per 100,000, 2012: 267.6 per 100,000per 100,000, 2013: 293.9 per 100,000per 100,000, 2014: 294.8 per 100,000per 100,000
The dotted line marks the change from the CDC/NCHS file to the SSA file.
January 16 as a share of that year's U.S. births
YearBirths on this datePer 100,000 births
19948,123205.5
199510,417267.1
199611,181287.3
199711,311291.5
199811,535292.7
19998,444213.3
20007,657184.5
200112,327299.9
200211,996292.6
200312,136291.5
200412,424296.7
20057,192170.8
200611,477264.7
200712,825292.8
200813,183305.8
200912,542299.3
20108,032198.0
20117,046175.8
201210,707267.6
201311,678293.9
201411,822294.8

Source break: 1994–1999 counts come from the CDC/NCHS daily file and 2000–2014 from the Social Security Administration daily file. The overlapping years 2000–2003 are taken from the SSA file only, so each year is counted once. But the step at 2000 is a change of source as well as a change of year, and any comparison across it includes that change.

The weekday the date fell on, scheduling practice and recording practice are all inside these lines.

A generation earlier, in the separate daily file for 1969–1988, January 16 ranked #294 of 366 with 9,330 births per occurrence. The 1969–1988 calendar and what changed since.

January 16 in five countries

Countries are compared only over the matched years 2007–2014, which all five sources cover completely, and using births per occurrence so that leap day is handled the same way everywhere. Each country's records are counted on their own.

January 16 rank and intensity, 2007–2014
CountryRank of 366Index (100 = average day)
United States#26097.4
England & Wales#155100.4
Denmark#149101.6
Metropolitan France#108102.0
Malaysia#30196.1

In the matched window the U.S. rank is #260; over the full 1994–2014 collection it is #340. The two numbers answer different questions and usually differ for two reasons at once: the window is eight years against twenty-one, and the metric is births per occurrence against the total across the whole period. Every figure on this page names its window and its metric. Full five-country study.

Among the 6,025,603 people living in Denmark on January 1, 2026, 15,586 have this birthday, one resident in 387. A count of people living there, wherever they were born. How many people in Denmark share a birthday.

Born on January 16

12 people from the English Wikipedia “On this day” birth lists, oldest first. A reading list. Every birth figure on this page comes from the national records.

Names and descriptions from English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-09-11; curated arts/science/sport entries, years 1800–2008. not a celebrity census. conflicting identities excluded.

Keep going

Open the January 16 card →

Sources, method and limits

Main ranking: 85,712,738 recorded U.S. births on 7,670 calendar dates, 1994–2014. CDC/NCHS daily counts for 1994–1999 and Social Security Administration daily counts for 2000–2014, as compiled by FiveThirtyEight and attributed under CC BY 4.0. The overlapping years 2000–2003 are counted once.

Ranks compare totals across the 366 observed month-and-day dates. February 29 occurred 5 times in this window; every other date occurred 21 times, so per-occurrence figures are used wherever seasonality is compared.

Every figure above comes from the administrative records named here, at the granularity those records publish: a day, a month or a year. Coverage and definitions differ between countries and eras, so two sources are combined only where their documentation states the windows are separate, and the page where that happens says so.

Full method, leap-day treatment and definitions.

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