Peak birthday warning for late September

Peak birthday warning for late September – Media release

17 September 2015

Statistics NZ is reminding New Zealanders that their wallets may be in for a hammering, with ‘peak birthday’ due to hit the country this week.

The peak birthday period will start on 19 September and stay with the country until 1 October.

“Over this 13-day period, the 10 most popular birthdays will occur, with about 180,000 New Zealanders expected to celebrate over this time,” senior demographer Kim Dunstan said.

“We’ve found that the most common birthday in New Zealand is 30 September, with 14,000 celebrating on that day. The least common birthdays tend to be around the fixed public holidays like Christmas Day.”

After 29 February, the least common birthdays in New Zealand occur on 24–27 December, 1–2 January, 6 February(Waitangi Day), and 25 April (ANZAC Day).

“Although the peak birthday period in New Zealand is similar to that in the US, the pattern is less extreme across the Tasman and in the UK,” Mr Dunstan said.

New Zealanders spend over $322 million ever year on games, toys, and hobbies. To help you manage your gift-giving budget, Statistics NZ has released Rank your birthday, a tool to show birthdate rank, how common it is, and how many people potentially share the big day. The calculator is based on births from 1980 to 2014.

Days are ranked 1 to 366 by number of births, where 1 is the most common birthday and 366 the least common. Some days are tied for ranking because they have the same number of births.

There is some good news for your wallet when looking for a potential gift: while prices this year are up 1.7 percent from last year, they’re still down 13 percent from five years ago. So a toy or game that cost $30 in 2010 is now only $26.

ENDS

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