When our special day rolls around, we’re often torn between celebrating another year of wisdom and dreading the march of time. But the ‘birthday effect’ adds a curious twist to this age-old celebration.
The birthday effect is a statistical phenomenon (and a real party pooper) in which a person’s likelihood of dying is higher on, or around, their birthday. This somewhat gloomy discovery has been validated by various studies, such as the 2012 Swiss study, which identified a 13.8 per cent rise in the number of people aged 60 and older who meet their end on their actual birthdays, compared to other days. Similarly, a 2015 study in the US found that, on average, the risk of dying on your birthday is 6.7 per cent higher.