Monday, October 19, 2026 · Played it? Here's how rare each one really was.
Summary of more than 50 surveys.
1 in 1.5 people 66.7%
A 2004 review of more than 50 surveys found about two thirds of people have had at least one déjà vu experience.
Fun fact: It's more common in the evening than the morning, and on weekends than weekdays. It also gets rarer as people age.
Source: Alan S. Brown, Current Directions in Psychological Science (2004)
23andMe survey of 18,495 customers, 2012.
1 in 8 people 12.4%
2,299 of 18,495 participants (12.4%) said cilantro tastes soapy. The rate varied by ancestry, from about 4% to 14%.
Fun fact: It's linked to OR6A2, a smell-receptor gene. In a class of 30, expect about 4 people who taste soap.
Source: Eriksson et al., Flavour (2012)
EU adults aged 25–64, 2022.
1 in 8.1 adults 12.3%
Eurostat's 2022 Adult Education Survey found 12.3% of EU adults knew 3 or more foreign languages, and 25.3% knew none.
Fun fact: In Slovenia it's 56.3%, more than half of adults. Meanwhile a quarter of all EU adults don't know any foreign language.
Source: Eurostat, Foreign language skills statistics (2022 data)
All FIDE-rated players (standard, rapid and blitz lists), mid-2025
1 in 931 players 0.11%
ChessBase (June 2025): 1,643,067 FIDE-rated players; FIDE reports 1,730 to 1,800 grandmasters. The midpoint (1,765) gives about 1 in 931 (range 913 to 950).
Fun fact: In 1993 there were only 524 grandmasters in the world. By 2025 that number had more than tripled.
Source: ChessBase, Chess Statistics Today, June 2025 (FIDE figures)
A truly random shuffle.
1 in 3,628,800 shuffles less than 0.0001%
10 songs can be ordered 10 × 9 × 8 × … × 1 = 3,628,800 ways, and only one is the original.
Fun fact: Reshuffle once a second, nonstop, and you'd wait about 42 days on average to hear it in the original order.
Source: Math: 10! = 3,628,800