The National Lottery is celebrating its 27th birthday this year. In that time, it has seen over 5,500 winners walk away with prizes in excess of £1 million.
Some cities have proven luckier than others, with several of their citizens finding themselves holding the golden ticket. While the lottery is entirely random, it seems fortune favours certain postcodes more than others.
The luckiest of them all is undoubtedly Birmingham, which had over 168 winners in the 25 years following the lottery’s launch. Let’s take a look at the numbers.
The Luckiest City of All
Source: Pixabay
If you’re a Birmingham native, you may share our viewpoint: that hailing from Britain’s Second City is lucky in itself. Home to the Peaky Blinders, the Bullring, and the glassy black waters of its sprawling canals, our hometown is a wonderful place to live, work, and grow.
Fickle fortune seems to agree with this viewpoint, bestowing Birmingham with more lottery winners than any other city in the UK. With a whopping 168 ticket holders who’ve laid claim to £1 million or more, it has proven itself luckier than most.
While we’d like to see this as a sign, the real reason may lie in the size of the city, which is the largest in England after London. If you’re feeling lucky, however, the National Lottery may not be the best option for residents.
Compared to Irish Lotto, for example, which has a one in 10.7 million chance of winning, the National Lottery offers a meagre one in 45 million chance of taking home the jackpot. You’re even less likely to win the EuroMillions, which has odds of one in 139.8 million.
The Luckiest Cities for Lottery Wins
Of course, Birmingham isn’t the only place to have a lot of winners. The cities filling out the top 10 spots are:
- Birmingham, aka England’s Second City
- Belfast, the capital and largest city in Northern Ireland
- Glasgow, the most populous city in Scotland
- Liverpool, the 10th largest English city
- Sheffield, which has a population of almost 600,000
- Newcastle, which has a population of around 268,000
- Cardiff, the capital of Wales
- Manchester, which has a population of over 550,000
- Peterborough, the largest city in East Anglia
- Leicester, which has a population of nearly 350,000
What each of these areas has in common is a sizeable population, which likely explains their appearance in this list.
Seven New Millionaires Every Week
Source: Pixabay
What these numbers equate to is seven new millionaires each week, who hail from every corner of the UK. Naturally, you have to be in it to win it, but it seems those from Birmingham have a better chance than most.
Not only does the lottery benefit those who win, but it also helps to fund and support lots of local causes, both in Birmingham and further afield. As the National Lottery’s Andy Carter reveals, this has equated to over 565,000 Good Cause grants being handed out since 1994.
So, the question is this: will you be taking part the next time the balls roll and the fun begins?
