The three graphs above show that women who give birth in winter months (blue dots) tend to be younger, less educated, and less likely to be married compared to mothers who give birth during the summer months (green dots). The data displayed some trends for the time period shown (1996-2001), but the summer/winter discrepancy remained surprisingly constant.
These data, reported by economists Kasey Buckles and Daniel Hungerman at the University of Notre Dame, may offer an explanation for the observation that, compared to "summer babies," those born in winter months tend to do more poorly in school, are less healthy, earn less, and have shorter lifespans.
The mechanism behind these relationships, alternative explanations, and a long comment thread are available at the primary link.
Link, via Salon.
I think you mean younger, as the graph shows that a higher percentage of women giving birth in January are teenagers.
As a winter baby with a PhD born to an optical engineer and small business owner, I disagree with their findings.
Married couples tend to have more sex in the winter as there may be less to do, and I think many couples like to plan for a summer baby for various reasons. Just from a comfort perspective, women who plan a pregnancy tend to choose the winter months so as not to be huge/heavy/uncomfortable during hot summer months.
Just a theory
I wonder how they justify that the trend sharply increases going into May and just as sharply decreases going out. What makes May so unique? I also wonder how they would describe the kink in the data found between May and the next January.
Later a similar study was done in the southern hemisphere. Again, the kids born in the warmer months (in this case Dec, Jan, Feb) had the best advantage.
As a December 27th kid, I wonder how I'd have turned out if I made my debut in July?
Alejo
How come we ignore the supposed "psychologically approven" approaches when doing this blabla tests?
To prove the contrary: our "Winter" baby has a very intelligent mother (as well as father, both well educated at renown universities), is already beyond her actual age (8 months) and has more curiosity about her surroundings than many an elder peer. The exception that proves the case? No - statistics are pure bull shit. Thx for telling people they are dumb for having kids in Winter. If you can't differentiate between objective information an statistical manipulation, perchance you should consider a political job... Or maybe a banker: they make good money trying to tell people "things are a certain way because statistics prove it - although I have no clue about the study in case"...
Since when did Neatorama go yellow?