Mother's Day sees highest call volumes of year: study

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) – People living overseas might forget to send a card or flowers for Mother's Day but they do remember to pick up the phone with a study finding international call volume is higher that day than on any other holiday.

The study, by U.S.-based international calling firm VIP Communications, found call volume on Mother's Day is 8 percent higher than at New Year, 11 percent higher than Valentine's Day and 62 percent up on Halloween.

"We analyzed the calling habits of more than 50,000 VIP Communications customers over the past year in order to determine which expats show the most loyalty to their mothers over the phone on Mother's Day in their respective countries," said Peter Rogers, senior vice president of VIP Communications.

"We found that Mother's Day is far and away the most popular day to place phone calls across the world, registering more calling traffic than any other holiday, including New Year's and Valentine's Day."

South African expats were the most likely to pick up the phone on Mother's Day, which is most commonly held on the second Sunday in May, with calls made that day rising 91 percent. This was a higher call volume increase than any other country.

South Africans also spend more time on the phone, with their average call on Mother's Day nearly 72 percent longer than during other days of the year.

Trailing South Africans on the list were Ghanians who make 82.7 percent more phone calls on Mother's Day than all other days in the year.

Rounding out the top 10 were China, Cameroon, New Zealand, Germany, Australia, Japan, Kenya and Britain.

Egypt and Korea were the only two countries in the world to experience a decrease in call traffic on Mother's Day, with call volume among Egyptians dropping by 9.2 percent and among South Koreans by 7.1 percent.

But South Koreans are top when it comes to calling their fathers on Father's Day, making four times as many calls on that day than they do on Mother's Day.

The VIP Communications (www.JoinVIP.Com) study found the United States ranks in the middle of the pack. On average, Americans make 11.3 percent more calls on Mother's Day than during the rest of the year, ranking 18th in the world.

(Writing by Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Sugita Katyal)