Düsseldorf (dpa/lnw) - Around 107,200 people in North Rhine-Westphalia have a very personal reason to celebrate on the Christmas holidays: their birthday is on December 24th, 25th or 26th. Births on the three days are rarer than the annual average, as the State Statistical Office announced on Friday. On average over the past 22 years, a good 315 children were born each Christmas day - the average for the other calendar days is 436 children per day.

According to the statistics office, a good 35,800 people in NRW have their birthday on December 24th. On the 25th there are 35,100, on December 26th 36,300 people. According to this, most of the Christmas Eve babies of the past two decades were born in 2003. At that time, 372 children were born. Last year there were 320 babies.