Rā whānau ki a koe to late September babies - you're in good company, with tens of thousands of you throughout Aotearoa. (File image) Photo: Valendina.ru / 123rf
Aotearoa is about to hit "peak birthday season" - but why exactly is that?
The 30 most common birthdays all appear in a 36-day period across September and October, with the six most common birthdays falling on consecutive dates between 26 September and 1 October.
The PG explanation was that people did "a lot of celebrating and fun in the sun" over the Christmas and New Year period, Kim Dunstan from Stats NZ told Nights.
That led to a "baby bump" in September and October.
Dunstan said that was not limited to the Southern Hemisphere. Many countries for which the festive season fell over winter, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, also had a high number of babies born in September and October.
That was because more people were generally off work and relaxed in December and January - peak conditions for creating new life.
"Clearly it isn't just a summer phenomenon. It's countries that celebrate Christmas, New Year, and have some sort of decent holiday around that time."
More than 16,000 New Zealanders were born on each of those "peak birthday days" in late September and early October, he said.
Most other days of the year, nearly 15,000 people celebrated their birthdays.
Until very recently, 29 September was the most common birthday, but 27 September had since taken the crown.
"It's very tight for the top spot - there's just a few births between those top five or six days."
As for the least common birthday, 29 February - which only fell once every four years - took that title. Just 3500 New Zealanders celebrated their birthday on that day, Dunstan said.
Public holidays like Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day, Waitangi Day and Anzac Day also saw few births.
One in three births in Aotearoa was now "scheduled" - either through being induced or caesarean section - which contributed to those low figures, Dunstan said.
"[Births are] very unlikely to be scheduled on a public holiday."
