As we recently discovered, the first major holiday in May—Star Wars Day on May 4th—is full of math fun. But would you believe that the other big holiday in May—the much more important Mother's Day—is also chock-full o' math goodness?

Believe it or not, it is.

For example: How many mothers are there in the United States? How many children were born this year? What's the most common number of kids? And, most importantly, what's the equation for a happy Mother's Day? Those are exactly the questions we'll be answering today.

Mother's Day Stats and Figures
Holidays are great for those of us who love stats, figures, and all things quantitative. And Mother's Day is no exception. Here are a few of my favorite numbers that I discovered about mothers and Mother's Day by looking at recent United States Census data:

  • There were approximately 85.4 million mothers in the United States in 2009.

Continue reading on