The most auspicious year for Chinese births is almost over. For dragon babies, the competition is just getting started.

• Being born in the year of the dragon is auspicious, according to the Chinese lunar calendar.
• Dragon babies are regarded as smart, successful, and natural leaders.
• Experts say that being born in this year can make life harder at work and in school.

Jackson Koh was born in Singapore in the Chinese Year of the Dragon. Growing up, he says he was his aunts' and uncles' favorite — and he knows why.

"When I was young, every Chinese New Year, my relatives would ask, 'What zodiac is your child?' And my parents would say, 'Oh, he's a dragon,'" said Koh, a 23-year-old student at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.

"And then all the relatives were, like, 'Wow! He's going to grow up to be very rich and very successful,'" he added.

"Obviously, listening to all this every year, it'll build up your ego. You just think, 'Oh, I'm a dragon, I'm special,'" Koh said.

Why the Dragon Year is special

There are 12 Chinese zodiac animals, arranged in the following order: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. The cycle repeats every 12 years.

Under the lunar calendar, 2024 is the year of the dragon.

The dragon is the only mythical creature among the dozen animals. It's considered the most auspicious zodiac by the Chinese — and people in Asia make it a point to procreate, with hopes of birthing a child in those 12 calendar months.

According to Singapore's Department of Statistics, births went from 36,178 in 2011 to 38,641 in 2012, the most recent dragon year. The number of births in the following year, 2013, dipped back down to 35,681.

A similar trend of dragon-year birth spikes was observed in 1988 and 2000.

People born in the dragon year are said to be natural leaders, intelligent, and charismatic.

"Dragon babies are, for the most part, intensely desired and prized by their parents. Culturally, dragons are held in the highest esteem — they were symbols of the emperor," Ee Cheng Ong, an associate professor of economics at the National University of Singapore (NUS), told Business Insider.

Special attention, but more competition

Several dragon babies in Singapore told Business Insider they were a source of pride for their family elders, who showered them with more attention because of their birth year.

Melissa Anne Lim, a self-employed 23-year-old, said that, like Jackson Koh, she was doted on growing up.

"My grandma loves that I'm a dragon," said Lim. "Being a dragon baby kind of gave me a little more special attention, from the aunties especially."

Dragon babies are also likely to face more competition in school and in the workplace from their direct peers.

"Because schools have limited resources, including numbers of classrooms, facilities, and teachers, it is indeed correct that people born in such years may face disadvantages in terms of having larger class sizes and more competition in accessing 'top schools,'" said Kelvin Seah, a senior economics lecturer at NUS.

And it's not just schools. Seah said dragon babies will also have a tougher time looking for jobs after graduation.

"There are only so many jobs available in the economy. The larger cohort size means more competition for the limited number of jobs after graduation," Seah said.

In 2017, researchers from NUS published a study on the life outcomes of dragon babies in Singapore.

The study — which had a sample size of 4,608 and is based on local birth, employment, and university admissions data from 1960 to 2015 in Singapore — found that Chinese dragon babies earned 6.3% less than other Chinese birth cohorts upon entering the workforce.

The study also found that Chinese dragon babies were 2.3% less likely to gain admission to local universities in Singapore.

A numbers game

In other places where the lunar year is observed — and accorded cultural significance — people born in the year of the dragon also face a unique set of challenges.

In China, for instance, dragon babies taking the gaokao, the country's marathon university entrance exams, may face more intense competition with a larger cohort, said Stuart Gietel-Basten, a professor of social science and public policy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

China also sees birth rate spikes in dragon years. According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, in 2012, China's birth rate reached 14.57 births per 1,000 people. That was an increase from 13.27 births per 1,000 people in 2011. Births dipped the following year, to 13.03 births per 1,000 people in 2013.

But the latest crop of dragon babies may have it easier, with competition evening out as birth rates drop.

And cultural expectations may be changing, Gietel-Basten added. Dragon babies might have once been subject to great pressure to exceed expectations, but Gietel-Basten says he'd be "surprised" if that same level of pressure would be applied to 2024's dragon babies as they grow older.

"You could even say that if you're a dragon baby, you become more confident," Gietel-Basten said. "And so you could prosper not out of the pressure that's been put on you, but because of that confidence."

Dragon baby spikes aside, birth rates remain low

Whether it's hard to be a dragon baby or not, one thing is clear: Asian countries — including Singapore and China, both of which follow the lunar year — are facing a birth rate problem.

In 2023, China's population fell for the second year in a row due to record-low birth rates. Singapore recorded a total fertility rate of 0.97 in 2023, the first time it had ever fallen below 1.0.

Policymakers across Asia are resorting to a wide range of measures to try to convince people to have more children.

In 2016, China dropped its controversial one-child policy and allowed couples to have two kids. The government changed its rules again in 2021 to let couples have up to three children.

Tokyo's government said in June that it was investing $1.3 million to launch its own dating app for residents. Japan's total population has declined for the 15th straight year in 2023.

Seoul is offering up to $730 in incentives to people looking to reverse their vasectomies and tubal ligations. South Korea in 2023 recorded the world's lowest fertility rate, at 0.72 births per woman.

Some leaders are using the allure of the dragon baby in their messaging to encourage more children.

In February, then-Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in his annual Chinese New Year message that it is a good time for families to "add a 'little dragon.'"

"I hope my encouragement prompts more couples to try for a baby, although I know that the decision is a very personal one," Lee said.

But higher than ordinary birth rates in a given year can also stress social systems.

"If there's still a bunching of baby deliveries in dragon years, that will create tension within schools and public educational resources," said Qian Wenlan, a finance and real estate professor at the National University of Singapore. Qian co-authored the 2017 study about life outcomes for dragon babies in Singapore.

"In some years, you just have to employ more teaching staff — such as adjunct teachers, for example — to accommodate and to educate more students," Qian added.

Still, even if the road is paved with challenges, sometimes being born a dragon is little more than a happy accident.

"At the end of the day, there are many other factors to take into consideration when we family plan," Lim, the 23-year-old dragon baby, said. "I have a niece and nephew who were both born in the year of the dragon. Did their parents plan for them to be dragons? Not exactly — but it was a pleasant surprise."