Expecting Mother, Kern County, California, November 1936

Mother’s Day is one of the country’s most honored national observances. The idea started in 1908 with Anna Jarvis of West Virginia, honoring her recently departed mother — who had hoped that sometime there would be a day to commemorate all mothers. By 1911, every state observed Mother’s Day and three years later, Congress made it a national event.

There are nearly 83 million mothers across the U.S. Each year, about 4 million women have babies. Of those, teen mothers have 435,000 children, and women 40 and older, 112,000. The odds of a woman delivering twins are one-in-31. More births occur in August than any other month, and Tuesday is the most common birthday. Jacob and Emily were the most popular baby names for boys and girls, respectively, in 2006.

The flowers bought for mom have a good chance of having been grown in California. Among the 15 surveyed states, California was the leading provider of cut flowers in 2006, accounting for 77 percent of domestic flower production ($316 million out of $411 million) in those states. There were 21,135 florist establishments nationwide in 2005.

According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the resident population of the United States, projected to 05/21/08 at 07:11 GMT (EST+5) is 304,134,342

COMPONENT SETTINGS FOR MAY 2008

One birth every.................................................   7 seconds
One death every..............................................  13 seconds
One international migrant (net) every............  30 seconds
Net gain of one person every.......................... 11 seconds

Continued

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