Lucky and Unlucky Numbers Around the World
Hotels with no 13th floor, flats in Hong Kong where the 4th floor is missing, a phone number ending in 888 sold for a small fortune: people everywhere treat some numbers as lucky and others as bad news. Here is a tour of the best-known lucky and unlucky numbers around the world, why they got that reputation, and the honest answer to whether a lucky number changes your odds.
Lucky Numbers
7: The World's Favourite
Seven turns up everywhere: seven days of the week, seven colours of the rainbow in the traditional list, seven wonders of the ancient world, and three sevens as the jackpot on a slot machine. When mathematician Alex Bellos asked tens of thousands of people online for their favourite number in 2014, 7 came top by a wide margin. One reason may be that it feels "random": it is odd, prime and not part of the 2, 5 and 10 patterns we count in.
8: Fortune in Chinese
In Mandarin, eight (bā) sounds close to the word for prospering or getting rich (fā). Number plates and phone numbers full of 8s sell for high prices, and the 2008 Beijing Olympics opened on 8 August 2008 at 8:08 in the evening.
3: Third Time Lucky
English has "third time lucky" and "good things come in threes", and many fairy tales give the hero three wishes or three tries. Three feels complete: a beginning, a middle and an end.
9: Long Life in Chinese
In Mandarin, nine (jiǔ) sounds like the word for long-lasting, so it is linked with long life and lasting love, and it was long associated with the emperor.
Unlucky Numbers
13 and Friday the 13th
Thirteen is the best-known unlucky number in the English-speaking world, and many hotels and tower blocks skip the 13th floor. The fear even has a name, triskaidekaphobia. Where it began is not certain: people point to the 13 guests at the Last Supper and to older myths, but the idea of Friday the 13th as an especially unlucky day only became widespread in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
4: Death in East Asia
In Chinese, Japanese and Korean, the word for four sounds like the word for death (sì and sǐ in Mandarin, shi in Japanese). Many buildings in the region have no 4th floor, or none ending in 4, and some products avoid being sold in sets of four.
9 in Japan
The same number can be lucky in one country and unlucky in another. In Japanese, nine can be read ku, which sounds like the word for suffering, so some hospitals and hotels skip room 9.
17 in Italy
In Roman numerals, 17 is XVII. Rearrange the letters and you get VIXI, Latin for "I have lived", which is what you would write on a grave. Some Italians avoid 17 the way others avoid 13.
666
In the Bible's Book of Revelation, 666 is "the number of the beast", which made it unlucky across much of the Christian world. In Chinese, though, 6 sounds like the word for flowing smoothly, and 666 can mean "everything going well".
Why Do Numbers Feel Lucky?
- Sound-alike words. Most of the East Asian lucky and unlucky numbers come from what the number sounds like.
- Stories and religion. 7, 13 and 666 all get much of their meaning from old texts and stories.
- Memory. We remember the time 7 came up and we won, and forget the many times it did not. Psychologists call this confirmation bias.
- Personal history. A birthday, a shirt number or a house number becomes "your" number because of the good things linked to it.
Does a Lucky Number Change Your Odds?
No. A fair 6-sided die lands on each face 1 time in 6, whether your lucky number is 3 or 6. A fair Random Number Generator gives every number in its range exactly the same chance on every draw, and it does not remember what came before. The full maths is in our guide to dice probability.
There is one small twist. In draws where winners share a prize, many people pick birthdays, so numbers from 1 to 31 are chosen more often. Picking higher numbers does not make you more likely to win, but if you do win, you are less likely to share the prize with other people who picked the same numbers.
Games with Lucky Numbers
- Lucky number of the day. Draw a number from 1 to 100 each morning with the Random Number Generator. Spot it during the day on a bus, a clock or a page number for a point.
- Lucky or unlucky? Roll a die; before each roll, everyone says whether the next number will be "lucky" (higher than the last) or "unlucky" (lower).
- Number around the world. Draw a number from 1 to 20 and the group has to name a country where it is lucky or unlucky. For more ideas, see random number generator games.
FAQ
What is the luckiest number in the world?
Seven is the most popular lucky and favourite number in many surveys and cultures. In China, 8 is seen as the luckiest because it sounds like the word for prospering.
Why is 13 unlucky?
Nobody knows for sure. People link it to the 13 guests at the Last Supper and to older myths, and the fear of Friday the 13th spread mostly in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
Why is 4 unlucky in China and Japan?
The word for four sounds like the word for death in Chinese, Japanese and Korean, so many buildings skip the 4th floor.
Does a lucky number improve your chances?
No. Dice and fair random number generators give every number the same chance on every roll or draw, whatever number you pick.
Why is 17 unlucky in Italy?
The Roman numeral XVII can be rearranged into VIXI, Latin for "I have lived", a phrase linked with death.