Monday, October 26, 2026 · Played it? Here's how rare each one really was.
People living in households in the UK, 2024.
1 in 8 people 12.5%
8.4 million people lived alone in the UK in 2024, 12.5% of people in households.
Fun fact: That's 8.4 million people. Meanwhile 28% of 20-to-34-year-olds in the UK still live with their parents.
Share of the world's population, 2018.
1 in 9.1 people 11.0%
Gössling & Humpe (2020) estimate only 11% of the world's population flew in 2018, and under 4% flew internationally.
Fun fact: In a group of 100 people from around the world, about 11 flew that year and fewer than 4 went abroad by plane.
Source: Lund University, on Gössling & Humpe, Global Environmental Change (Nov 2020)
UK owner survey of 4,598 male cats (Leaman et al., 1999), cited in a 2015 study.
1 in 250 male cats 0.4%
The survey found tortoiseshell coats in 0.4% of male cats. Tortie colouring normally needs two X chromosomes.
Fun fact: A shelter with 500 male cats would have about 2 torties. In studied male torties, the most common pattern was XX/XY chimerism: two sets of cells in one cat.
Source: Szczerbal et al., Molecular Cytogenetics (2015), citing Leaman et al., Vet Record (1999)
13 cards from a shuffled 52-card deck: no 10, jack, queen, king or ace.
1 in 1,828 hands 0.055%
All 13 cards must come from the 32 cards ranked 2 to 9: C(32,13) ÷ C(52,13).
Fun fact: Play 20 hands an evening and you'd wait about 3 months for one. Still, it's about 87 million times likelier than all 13 cards of one suit.
Source: Math: C(52,13) ÷ C(32,13) ≈ 1,828
In-service airliners, average. Airbus Safety First (undated, accessed Oct 2026).
1 in 3,000 flight hours 0.033%
Airbus says an in-service aircraft is struck by lightning on average once a year, or every 3,000 flight hours.
Fun fact: That's about one strike a year per airliner. Airbus notes theory predicts a strike only once every 1,000 years.