Why You're More Likely to Die on Your Birthday (and Payday!)

Happy b-day! Chew on this stat in between bites of cake: Your chance of dying spikes more than 25 percent on your birthday, shows a new study in Social Science and Medicine. 

Give it some thought, and you can probably guess why. “People like to celebrate their birthdays,” says economist and study author Pablo Peña, Ph.D., “and celebrations sometimes involve risky behaviors.” 

Peña mentions driving, stress, and chugging alcohol as three risky behaviors associated with birthday partying. You’re even more likely to cash in your chips if your birthday falls on a weekend, his research shows.

So keep it under control after you blow out your candles, and live to party another year. While you’re at it, watch out for these other dangerous death days. 

Santa Claus and the Grim Reaper: sleigh buddies? Death rates jump up to 9 percent on December 25 compared to a normal day, finds a joint study from UCLA and UCSD. 

Unlike the birthday study, there’s no good explanation for the Christmas-death connection. Among other things, the study authors looked at holiday season stress, travel, cold weather, and substance abuse as possible causes. They say none of those factors could explain such a dramatic uptick right on Christmas Day.   

Although partying probably has something to do with this, the Christmas study team also found a big surge in excess deaths on January 1. More mystifying: Rates of death for all sorts of common diseases—from cancer to cardiovascular disease—also swell on the first day of the year. The authors call this death uptick “an important public health concern.” 

Thanks to a specific group of gene variations—which about 84 percent of all people carry—your body’s circadian rhythms undergo a meaningful shift in the late morning, shows a study from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Not to get too sciencey, but that shift makes you more likely to shuffle off your mortal coil right around 11 a.m., assuming you’re very near to death’s doorstep. The other 16 percent of people who have a related gene variation are more likely to check out around 6 p.m., the study authors found. 

Several studies, including one from the University of Maryland, have found you’re more likely to die on or immediately following the day you receive a paycheck. That’s especially true of your second paycheck of the month, if you’re paid bi-weekly.

Researchers say an infusion of cash allows you to do more, whether you’re drinking with friends or driving to a mall to buy stuff. And both of those behaviors—as well as plenty of others that require cash—explain the small but significant uptick in payday death rates. The authors say the second paycheck is more closely related to death because your first probably goes toward paying bills.   

And if you receive your second paycheck on your birthday, which also happens to be Christmas Day? Well, it was nice knowing you.