# Data on death and dying on your birthday **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 11, 2017, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/data-on-death-and-dying-on-your-birthday/801311 "2017-11-11T11:36:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2017, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/data-on-death-and-dying-on-your-birthday/801311/21 "2017-11-11T18:38:22Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > A one in 365 chance is 0.0027. That’s tiny enough to be unnoticed in any small group. Increasing that by 6.7%, as in bob++'s link, brings it up only to 0.0029. Again, you wouldn’t notice that or that change in any study you did personally. Yes, it should be noted that even if you were twice (100%) or three times (200%) as likely to die on your birthday than any other day, it’s not something that could really be borne out from personal experience, but rather requires a large population study. The differences are pretty minute on a day-to-day personal level. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2017, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/data-on-death-and-dying-on-your-birthday/801311/22 "2017-11-11T19:31:20Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > I haven’t studied the numbers, but it certainly FEELS true that many people die right after reaching a milestone date. That MAY be a birthday, but it could also be Christmas, an anniversary, a grandchild’s wedding, whatever. It’s almost as if older or sick people either WILL themselves to live long enough to reach a special day, or mentally make a deal with God ( “Let me spend one last Christmas/birthday with my family and THEN I’ll be ready to go.” > > I know that will sound like “woo” to some, but I’m not suggesting anything supernatural is involved. But I don’t think it’s coincidence that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on the date most important to them (July 4). Not merely July 4, but July 4, 1826, on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration. Adams’s last words are reputed to have been, “But Jefferson still lives.” But Jefferson had died five hours earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2017, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/data-on-death-and-dying-on-your-birthday/801311/23 "2017-11-11T21:26:00Z")
I have had several relatives who had milestone birthdays that they made it to, for whatever reason. A great-uncle who at his 100th birthday said he thought he only had five more years, and died 10 days after his 105th birthday. My mother, who said 90 would be enough for her–she said this at said great-uncle’s 100th, for instance, and who died 18 days after her 90th birthday. My aunt, her sister, who said much the same thing according to my cousins, and who died less than a month after her 90th birthday. This is balanced out by a whole slew of people, mostly on my father’s side, who didn’t even make it to their 50th birthday, and who died at very inopportune times like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and at the 4th of July picnic. Yes, right there at the picnic (but before the fireworks). I don’t think those people were picking the date. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/data-on-death-and-dying-on-your-birthday/801311.md?page=1)