Birthdays – Dale’s Daily Data

It's something everyone of us have and whether we like it or not it's on the calendar every year.  It's our birthday.  Some people look forward to them.  Some people prefer to ignore them.  I think birthdays are a bigger deal when you're a kid or when you reach certain milestones.  Like when you turn 16 you can drive, 18 you can vote, 21 you can legally do some of the things you weren't supposed to do as a kid.

Today is my special day on the calendar.  Clay asked me to recall what might have been my best birthday.  There have been so many of them I just can't remember, but if I had to pick one it might have been my 40th.  

I was under the impression we were going to have dinner at one of my favorite restaurants with another couple.  What I didn't know was Shelley had planned a surprise party for me.  I'm not sure how I never caught on, but Shelley and everybody invited did an incredible job of keeping it a secret.  Even my dad from California came in to join about 30 other people at our house.   

Shelley sent me on a last minute errand that kept me busy for about 45 minutes - enough time for everybody to arrive and it really, really was a surprise to see so many of my favorite people there.   

So I got to thinking how many other people share my birthday.  Former First Lady Barbara Bush, singers Nancy Sinatra and Bonnie Tyler, comedians Joan Rivers and Keenan Ivory Wayans, Buffalo Sabre Patrick Kaleta and former Sabre Rob Ray were also born on June 8th. 

 But did you ever wonder how many people in the world were born on the same date you were?

If you figure there are approximately 6.58-billion people in the world and you divide that number by 365 days in the year you'll find that nearly 18-million other people around the world were born on the same date as you.  That would include 3.6-million people in China, 3-million in India, a little under 825-thousand in the United States, 349-thousand in Japan.  That's assuming that an equal number of people have been and continue to be born each day throughout the year.  

How about leap year babies?  If you were born on February 29th, instead of one out of every 365 people around the world you share your birthday with one out of every 1461.  365 times four plus one extra day equals 1461.  So if you cut all those population numbers by 25 %, if you're a leap year baby you share your birthday with only 4,496,000 around the world and 204-thousand other Americans.  

 SOURCE: about.com