How likely actually is it that you will win the lottery?

The fact that you are more likely to get struck by lightning than win the lottery is often told to hopeful lottery players.

How likely is it that your numbers will come up in the lottery?

This can be figured out mathematically by calculating how many possible ways there are of choosing 6 numbers from 49. Without replacing each number after it has been picked.

To do this we use the "nCr"-(number of ways of choosing r items from n) button on a standard calculator. (This uses a more complicated mathematical formula using factorials).

Entering 49C6 you are told there are:

13,983,816 possibilities.

In other words, each set of 6 numbers has about a one in 14 million chance of coming up; not very likely!

Comparitively the chances of being struck by lightning in your lifetime are roughly 1 in 10,000!
So you are over 100 times more likely to be struck by lightning than win the lottery!