In politics, it’s often said that Iowa serves as the bellwether for the nation each four years. It seems that standard also could be applied to trends regarding the most popular birth months in recent years.
That’s because the Hawkeye State’s most common birth month over the last 15 years (August) was the whopping top choice nationally, with 36 states having the eighth month of the calendar year as their top birth month. Twelve 12 others had July as their No. 1 and two others (Hawaii and Wyoming) had months outside of those two.
To get our data, IowaBets.com – your source for Iowa sports betting - used the CDC’s Natality Information from 2007 to 2022 to find the most popular birth months of each state over that period.
Over the 15-year period surveyed for this story, Iowa had the most births in a pair of summer months, with August (55,351 births) beating out July (54,857) and September (53,160).
Of the 50 states in the U.S., the only ones that didn’t have August as their most popular birth month were Hawaii (September) and Wyoming (May). Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont and Washington all had July as their top birth month.
Of Iowa’s many neighbors, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska and Wisconsin all had August as their top birth month, while the Hawkeye State’s northern and northwestern neighbors had July as the top month.
Nationally, it seems like the best time of year to have a kid is the final full month of summer, as August is the standard-bearer for the most births overall, both in Iowa and across America.
When IowaBets.com isn’t monitoring Iowa betting apps, we occasionally take a look at stories of cultural interest such as this.
A recent example: Top Things to Do in Iowa.
Author
Christopher Boan is a lead writer at IowaBets.com specializing in covering state issues. He has covered sports and sports betting in Arizona for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
