It's Too Darn Hot

[kunilou]

For those of you who aren't Broadway musical buffs, this refers to a lament of the male libido dropping as the temperature rises. And personally, it refers to the damn air conditioning in my office being broken.

Does anyone know where I can find analyses of birth rates by month? If it's too darn hot in June, July, and August, shouldn't the birth rate drop in March, April, and May -- especially in the pre-air conditioning era? Or are there enough couples out there who feel like as long as they're already hot and sweaty. . .

[soulsling]

heck, give me hot and sweaty any day, the heat just turns me on more...

[Earl Snake-Hips Tucker]

I did something just like this recently.

I have access to a database of about 900,000 birthdates.

September was the peak month for births (about 10% higher than the mean).

May was the low month (about 10% lower than the mean).

I'll see if I can dig up my numbers.

I'd be curious to see, though, how this varies according to climate.

I'm in SC, where there's about a month of cold weather, three months of cool weather, five months of pleasant weather, and three months where the only thing separating you from Hell is a screen door.

[BobT]

If you can find a copy of "Vital Statistics of the United States", you can find your answer. The Federal government tracks births (and deaths) by months.
It's available at your bigger public libraries. I would think that you might be able to find it online if you look hard enough.

The last time I looked at it, September had the highest birth rate, but August had the most births because it had one extra day.