The lottery. You never know if you might win it right?
Well, the odds are pretty high to win the biggest jackpots, as much as 1 in 302 million.
Yet, every year, some people that play the lottery find out they have the winning numbers and their dreams come true overnight.
Are those people lucky, or is there a way to improve your odds of winning? Do certain types of people win?
These are five interesting lottery winning statistics.
1. Most Likely Someone Who Needs the Money
When it comes to playing the lottery, the people who play may be hoping to get out of a bad situation. This is because the people who play the lottery in the United States, more often than not, have less annual income.
A 2019 study showed that people making $30,000 or less spent a higher percentage of their income on the lottery than people from any other income bracket.
The exact results were that people making $30,000 or less spent 13% of their income on the lottery. People making over $30,000 but less than $50,000 spent 3% of their income on lottery tickets, and anybody making over $50,000 annually spent just 1% of their income on lottery tickets.
Some may say the same amount of money is being spent anyway but the statistics do not add up there. By this math, someone making $30,000 is spending $3,900 per year on tickets.
Then, someone making $45,000 would be spending $1,350 per year on tickets, and someone making $60,000 would be spending $600 per year on tickets.
So, when you think about it, people making less than $30,000 are buying a lot more tickets and therefore, are more likely to be the ones ending up winning the lottery.
2. Indiana Wins the Powerball
As of 2021, Indiana was the state that by far had the most Powerball winners in the history of the drawing with 39 respectively.
Is this that surprising? Honestly, a little bit, considering the population of the state.
Indiana ranks 17th in the country for the highest population with about 6.8 million people. An additional note on Indiana would be that they tied for the most overall lottery winners along with California.
The difference? California has by far the biggest population of any state in the country with 39.6 million people.
So, why do people from Indiana win the lottery? Some argue it might be just luck.
The annual income statistic above may have something to do with it. You see, Indiana ranks 35th in the country in median household income.
So, with it being a below-average state in household income, perhaps the statistic about people with less income playing more often applies with this state.
Either way, the Hoosier state has certainly been a lucky one with the lottery in its history if they can keep up with a state that has around 6x their population.
3. $1.58 Billion Is the Highest Jackpot Ever
Yes, you are reading this correctly. The amount of $1.58 BILLION is the highest jackpot ever recorded.
It took place in a 2016 Powerball drawing, where three winners ended up splitting this humungous grand prize.
Some may roll their eyes at this number because they might imagine that every number in a major lottery like the Powerball is a ridiculous number to win at once. However, this jackpot takes it to a whole new level because the average jackpot is a lot lower.
For the Powerball, the jackpot started as low as $40 million in past years. So, that means that if the jackpot goes into the billions, it is a long time to go without a winning number considering the prize increases every drawing.
4. Powerball Likes 61 Recently
This website keeps track of all of the Powerball and Mega Millions drawings throughout the last four years. One of the most interesting statistics of the numbers drawn in all of those that the website keeps track of is the number 61 in the Powerball.
Why is this? Because 61 has actually come out more times than the number itself. To put this in simpler terms, the number 61 has come out 63 times in a lotto drawing over the past four years.
To put that into perspective, no other number over 45 has come out more times than the value of that number. The closest is 44, which has come out about 46 times.
Some of you might be curious how the number 61 does in the Mega Millions over the same stretch. Well, the answer is not great, because the number has come out just 26 times in that lottery.
For the Powerball, 61 is the number that has come out the most in the last four years. The two closest numbers to it are 32, which has come out 61 times, and 23, which has come out 60 times.
5. Older People Play More
According to one study, the age demographic that is most likely to spend the most on lottery tickets per quarter are people ages 65-74. These people were found to spend about $125 on lottery tickets in that stretch.
The next highest age groups were people ages 45-54 and people 75 and older, who both spent about $80 in that stretch. After that, it was the 55-64 age group and the 35-44 age group.
Interesting, there is a big dropoff in ticket expenses for people under 35 and an even larger one for people under 25. People that are 25-34 were found to spend between $40-45 on tickets in that stretch and people under 25 spent maybe $10 on tickets.
This shows that of the people playing the lottery, it is most likely going to be someone that is either middle-aged or even a senior citizen.
Find Out More Lottery Winning Statistics
These are just five of the most interesting lottery winning statistics out there. But, no matter what the odds are, somebody has to win right?
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