How many babies are born in a day? (2024)

Are more babies born in the summer or winter? Morning or night? And how many are born in a day? There's lots of fun and interesting info about birthdays! The following stats are gathered from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention'sOpens a new window (CDC) birth data for 2021 and provisional data for 2022.

How many babies are born in a day?

In the United States, 3,664,292 babies were born in 2021. That's an average of more than 10,000 every day.

This marks a 1 percent increase in 2021, the first increase in births since 2014. Births declined an average of 2 percent each year from 2007 to 2013 and increased 1 percent in 2014. From 2014 to 2019, births declined an average of 1 percent per year.

According to preliminary reports from CDC, the number of births in the U.S. were essentially the same in 2022, at 3,667,758.

Worldwide, 133,974,696 babies were born in 2021, according to UNICEFOpens a new window. That's more than 367,000 babies born each day. In 2022, the total number of global births was 133,990,599.

Our World in DataOpens a new window projects that there will be 134.8 million births worldwide in 2023, an average of about 368,000 births each day.

What day of the week are most babies born?

The most popular day for babies to make their entrance is Tuesday, followed by Thursday. Sunday is the slowest day, followed by Saturday.

Scheduled C-sections and induced labors are one factor behind fewer weekend births, but spontaneous (unscheduled) deliveries occur less often over the weekend too. In 2021, 762,012 babies were born on a weekend, while 2,902,280 were born during the week.

What time of day are most babies born?

The midday hours (noon to 3) are when the most births occurred in 2021, followed by the morning hours of 9 to noon and then the afternoon hours of 3 to 6.

The fewest babies were born between 3 am and 6 am, followed by midnight to 3 am and then 9 pm to midnight.

What's the most common birthday month?

In 2021, more newborns arrived in August than in any other month. The second, third, and fourth most popular birthday months were July, September, and October, in that order.

The least busy month for birth days was February (makes sense, because it's a shorter month), followed by January and March.

Birth numbers and birth rates among states

The birth rate in the U.S. in 2021 was 11.0, meaning there were 11.0 births for every 1,000 Americans. This is up from 10.9 in 2020 and marks the first increase since 2014 (which marked the only other increase since 2010, when the rate was 13.0).

Globally, the birth rate is around 18 – ranging from about 40 in some African countries to less than 10 in some European countries, according to The World CountsOpens a new window. Worldwide, the birth rate has been steadily declining for decades, by about 1 percent per year.

In 2021, the number of births in the U.S. declined in one state (New Mexico) and increased in 16 states. Birth rates ranged from 8.3 in Vermont to 12.7 in South Dakota.

States with the most births and highest birth rates

The most number of total births were in:

California: 420,608 in 2021 and 418,523 in 2022

Texas: 373,594 in 2021 and 389,533 in 2022

Florida: 216,260 in 2021 and 224,226 in 2022

New York: 210,742 in 2021 and 207,484 in 2022

Pennsylvania: 132,622 in 2021 and 130,003 in 2022

Illinois: 132,189 in 2021 and 128,315 in 2022

In 2021, birth rates were highest in Utah (14.0), North Dakota (13.0), District of Columbia (12.9), Alaska (12.8), South Dakota (12.7), Texas (12.7), Nebraska (12.5), Louisiana (12.4), and Oklahoma (12.1).

States with the fewest births and lowest birth rates

The fewest births were in:

Vermont: 5,384 in 2021 and 5,275 in 2022

Wyoming: 6,237 in 2021 and 6,044 in 2022

The District of Columbia: 8,660 in 2021 and 8,047 in 2022

Alaska: 9,367 in 2021 and 9,331 in 2022

North Dakota: 10,112 in 2021 and 9,561in 2022

Rhode Island: 10,464 in 2021 and 10,214 in 2022

Delaware: 10,482 in 2021 and 10,786 in 2022

In 2021, states with the lowest birth rates were Vermont (8.3), Maine (8.7), New Hampshire (9.1), Rhode Island (9.6), Oregon (9.6), West Virginia (9.6), Connecticut (9.9), Massachusetts (9.9), and Florida (9.9).

Fertility rates in the U.S.

Total fertility rate

The total fertility rate (TFR) is the average number of children born per woman (the projected number of children each woman in a population would have in her lifetime). The TFR for the U.S. in 2021 was 1.6 births per woman, up 1 percent from 2020. The TFR declined by an average of 2 percent per year from 2014 through 2020, then rose 1 percent from 2020 to 2021.

This number is considered "below replacement," meaning the number needed to keep the population constant. (An average fertility of about 2,100 per 1,000 women – or 2.1 – would keep the population constant. Globally, the average fertility is 2.5, meaning the world population is growing, according to The World Counts.)

States with the highest fertility rates

Again, total fertility rate (TFR) is the average number of births per woman (the total number of children that each woman in a population would have in her lifetime).

South Dakota: 2.01

North Dakota: 1.9

Nebraska: 2.0

Utah: 1.9

Louisiana: 1.9

Arkansas: 1.9

States with the lowest fertility rates

Vermont: 1.4

Rhode Island: 1.4

Oregon: 1.4

Massachusetts: 1.4

New Hampshire: 1.5

Maine: 1.5

Births by age of mother

Over the last three decades, women have been waiting longer to have children. The age of first-time moms in the U.S. has slowly inched up from around age 20 to age 30.

In 1970, the average age of a first-time mother was 21.4. In 2021, the mean age of mothers at first birth was 27.3 years, an increase from 27.1 in 2020 and a record high. The overall average age of mothers giving birth in 2021 was 29.41 years.

Some interesting facts:

• The birth rate for teens fell again in 2021. The teen birth rate has fallen to a new low each year since 2009, and since 1991, the birth rate for teens has declined 78 percent.
• The birth rate for women 20 to 24 hit a record low in 2021. The rate for women this age has declined consistently since 2006.
• The birth rate for women 30 to 34 increased 3 percent from 2020 to 2021. For women 35 to 39, the total number of births and birth rate rose.
• Women 40 to 44 years had a birth rate of 12.0 births per 1,000 women in 2021, up 2 percent from 2020. The number of births to women in this age group rose 5 percent from 2020 to 2021.
• Total births to women 50 and over was 1,041. Births to women aged 50 and over has increased significantly since 1997, when the total was 144.

How much weight moms gain during pregnancy

Many factors (including starting height and weight and how many babies they're carrying) go into how many pounds a woman gains while pregnant. Here's what women tallied in 2021:

• Less than 11 pounds: 358,161 (10 percent)
• 11 to 20 pounds: 645,294 (18 percent)
• 21 to 30 pounds: 996,945 (27 percent)
• 31 to 40 pounds: 829,602 (23 percent)
• 41 to 98 pounds: 733,565 (20 percent)
• Unknown or not stated: 100,725 (.03 percent)

Read more about pregnancy weight gain.

Where and how women are giving birth

Birthplace

Hospitals are by far the most common place to give birth. In 2021, 98 percent of moms delivered in a hospital. A little over 0.60 percent of moms delivered at a freestanding birth center, and home births accounted for 1.4 percent of all births.

Here's how to choose a hospital for labor and delivery.

Medical provider

The vast majority of births (76 percent) have a Doctor of Medicine (MD) present, and about 9 percent are attended by a Doctor of Osteopathy (DO). Thirteen percent of births were attended by a midwife.

Pain relief

Seventy eight percent of women giving birth in 2021 used an epidural or some other type of anesthesia for pain relief.

Fetal presentation

The most common position for a baby to be in at the time of delivery is head down, facing mom's back. This is called cephalic presentation, and a whopping 96 percent of all births in 2021 occurred in this position. Almost 3 percent of births involved babies who were breech, or bottom-down. (The remaining 1 percent were "other" or "unknown/not reported.")

C-sections

The C-section rate was up 1 percent in 2021, to 32.1 percent of births. After increasing every year since 1996 (when the rate was 20.7 percent), C-section rates peaked at 32.9 percent in 2009. The rates declined in 2018 and 2019, then increased again in 2020 and 2021.

Older women are more likely than younger women to have C-sections. In fact, women 40 and over were more than twice as likely to delivery by C-section (47.5 percent) than women under age 20 (19.4 percent).

Preliminary data for 2022 shows that the cesarean delivery rate remains unchanged at 32.1 percent.

VBAC

The vagin*l birth after cesarean (VBAC) delivery rate is the number of vagin*l births to women with a previous cesarean delivery. There were 77,410 VBACs in 2021.

The VBAC delivery rate was 14.2 percent in 2021, up 2 percent from 2020. The rate has increased every year since 2016 (the year when national data became available).

Induction and other techniques

The number of women who had labor inductions has more than doubled since 1990. In 2021, 32.1 percent of labors were induced, compared with 22.8 percent in 2012.

Forceps and vacuum extraction deliveries were rare. Forceps were used in 0.23 percent of deliveries in 2021, and vacuum extraction was used in 1.06 percent of deliveries.

Premature babies

The percentage of babies born preterm (less than 37 weeks) was 10.49 percent in 2021, up 4 percent from 2020. This is the highest level reported since at least 2007 (when national preterm data first became available).

Preliminary data for 2022 show a decline of 1 percent, to a 10.38 percent preterm birth rate. The declines were seen in both early (2 percent) and late (1 percent) preterm births.

Newborn health

Apgar scores

An Apgar test shows how well your baby is doing just after birth, at one and five minutes. It assesses Activity (spontaneous movement), Pulse (heart rate), Grimace (reflex activity such as gagging in response to suctioning), Appearance, (color) and Respiration (breathing).

Among the Apgar scores recorded in 2021, 96 percent of babies received a score of 7 or higher on their 5-minute Apgar test. Eighty-two percent received a score of 9. Only 2 percent received a score of 10, and just 0.59 percent scored 0 through 3.

Boys vs. girls

With about 105 male babies born for every 100 female babies born in 2021, boys are keeping the edge in a ratio that's stayed about the same for the last 60 years.

Total female births in 2021: 1,790,876

Total male births in 2021: 1,873,416

Multiples

The total number of twins born in 2021 was 114,161.

The twin birth rate for 2021 was 31.2 per 1,000 births, up just a hair from the 2020 birth rate of 31.1, which was the lowest in almost two decades.

The number of triplets (or more) infants born in 2021 totaled 2,933. This includes 2,785 triplets, 133 quadruplets, and 15 quintuplet and higher-order multiple births.

The birth rate for triplets and higher-order multiples in 2021 was 80 per 100,000 births for 2021, just a hair increase from the 2020 rate of 79.6. From 1980 to 1998, the rate rose more than 400 percent, to the peak birth rate of 193.5 in 1998.

NICU stays

In 2021, just over 350,000 newborns were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at birth. That might sound like a lot, but keep in mind that over 3 million newborns did not require NICU care.

Weight at birth

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics' Section on Neonatal-Perinatal MedicineOpens a new window, the average weight for newborn baby boy is 7 pounds 6 ounces. For newborn girls, the average is 7 pounds 2 ounces.

Read about newborn weight gain, weight loss, and why it matters.

Low birth weight

The percentage of babies born in 2021 at a low birth weight (LBW) – which is defined as less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces – was 8.52. (LBW includes babies born preterm as well as those born at term.) This is an increase of 3 percent from 2020 and the highest rate since 2006.

According to the March of DimesOpens a new window, black infants were about twice as likely as white infants to be born low birth weight during 2019 to 2021.

For more CDC birth data, visit the agency's Births and NatalityOpens a new window page.