If you're like the rest of the world, you probably long to feel unique. 
 
 Sure, the concept is a bit ironic. But we often make decisions based on a desire to stand out, from our sense of style to our musical tastes. What about when it comes to picking a favorite number? 
 
 It turns out the world’s favorite number is seven — at least, according a recent survey with more than 44,000 participants from all over the world. 
 
 Alex Bellos, the survey’s creator and author of the new book The Grapes of Math, says societies’ fondness for seven is a longstanding one, with deep cultural roots built around a desire to be unique. 
 
 Bellos first got curious about favorite numbers in response to constantly being asked what his favorite was. (For the record, he claims not to have one.) 
 
 “At first I was so annoyed by this question," Bellos says. "I thought, you know, you’re trivializing mathematics. Until I said, ‘Well, what’s your favorite number?’ And I realized that, actually, lots of people feel incredibly passionate about numbers. And more often than not, people will have an entire story about what number they like." 
 
 And the story of number seven goes back — way back, Bellos says, to ancient Babylon. 
 
 “The number seven has actually been cultures' favorite number since as long as we know. You go back to the earliest writers we have, and there are more sevens there than any other number." 
 
 The trend toward seven spreads across different cultures and different time periods, too. Most of the world follows the seven-day week. 
 
 In China, the number seven is linked to good luck. In the Bible, there are seven sins. We've got seven seas, seven brothers, even seven dwarves ... the list goes on and on. 
 
 But what explains this fondness? 
 
 “We react quite clearly to numbers in a way that relates to their numerical properties,” explains Bellos. 
 
 Even numbers — which can always be divided into two groups and are often used for approximations — feel both too common and too vague to inspire an emotional connection. As Bellos puts it, "Who likes number 30? No one." 
 
 But if we look at the first 10 digits — the numbers we can count on our hands, so the numbers Bellos says we’re most intimate with — seven is the only one that cannot be multiplied or divided within the group. 
 
 "One, two, three, four, and five you can double and they stay at 10 or under," explains Bellos. "Six, eight, and 10 can be halved, and nine can be divided by three." 
 
 Seven, it seems, stands alone. 
 
 But don't discount your feelings for your favorite digit. 
 
 "Numbers are supposed to be things which are abstract ideas that signify quantity and order," Bellos says. "But they have words and they have symbols, and so they're actually part of culture and we have a much more complicated and deep relationship to numbers. We can't just see the arithmetical difference as something abstract. We interpret because we're humans. It's kind of part of who we are to ascribe emotions to abstract concepts like numbers." 
 
 Do you have a favorite? What's the story behind your favorite number. Let us know in the comments. ||||| The results of an online survey reveal a world in love with numbers that stand out and feel exceptional 
 
 Brides. Sages. Days. Seas. Sins. Sisters. Dwarves. 
 
 When it comes to ancient myths, stories and traditions, humans have always favoured seven above other numbers. And this heptophilia continues to the present day. 
 
 Today I’m releasing the results of an online survey I set up to find the world’s favourite number. Drum roll please! The top ten are: 
 
 7 3 8 4 5 13 9 6 2 11 
 
 The number 7 would like to thank its agent, its mother and its fans. 
 
 Okay, so I’m having a bit of fun. But only to make a serious point. The aim of the survey was to research the emotional connection that people have with numbers. In what non-numerical ways are we influenced by arithmetical patterns? 
 
 I got interested in this area because, as a maths communicator, I am always asked for my favourite number. Whenever I give talks – in schools, universities, festivals and corporate events – it's guaranteed this question will come up. 
 
 At first I thought this favourite number interrogation was frivolous, a way of poking fun at me (or maths). But gradually I learned that many people have genuinely strong feelings about numbers, and this realisation prompted me to launch the survey. 
 
 The response surpassed my expectations. Within a few weeks more than 30,000 people had taken part, which is when I started to clean the data and analyse it. Total responses now stand at 44,000. 
 
 The survey only polled people who found out about it online, and who voluntarily decided to take part, which means that the results do not have the rigour of a professional opinion poll or a laboratory experiment. Yet even so it is revealing about our number choices. 
 
 
 
 A summary of the results are: 
 
 
 
 1,123 individual numbers were nominated from 30,025 submissions. 
 
 Almost half of the submissions were for the numbers between 1 and 10. 
 
 Every number between 1 and 100 was chosen. 
 
 472 numbers between 1 and 1000 were chosen. 
 
 The lowest whole number that received nul points was 110. 
 
 If we had to nominate a "least favourite number" – 110 wins that gong. 
 
 In fact, the humiliation of 110 is an example of the most striking pattern in the data, which is that round numbers are rarely chosen as favourite numbers. Numbers ending in 0 are particularly unloved, as are numbers ending in 5 (with the exception of 5 itself). 
 
 Why might this be so? I’d argue that because round numbers are often used as approximations, they feel both too common and too vague to inspire an emotional connection. We are sensitive to arithmetical patterns, and respond emotionally to them. 
 
 
 
 The survey also asked respondents to explain their choices, and the most common reason for having a favourite number was that it was the day on which you were born.But if you were born on the 10th, or the 20th or the 30th of the month you are a lot less likely to choose 10, 20 or 30 as your favourite number than you are to choose 3, 7 or 13 if you were born on the 3rd, 7th or 13th of the month. 
 
 What we want in a favourite number is a "sticky" number – a number that stands out, that feels exceptional. 
 
 Which is why 7 came out top. 
 
 Seven owes its striking success in my survey – and in global culture since antiquity – to its exceptional arithmetical properties. 
 
 
 
 If we consider only the numbers between 1 and 10, the basic number grouping, 7 is the only number that cannot be multiplied or divided within the group. 
 
 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 can be doubled. 
 
 6, 8 and 10 can be halved. 
 
 9 divides by 3. 
 
 7 is left on its own. 
 
 
 
 We love seven because it is unique. It reflects our uniqueness. Of course it’s the world’s favourite number. 
 
 Lucky 7 indeed. 
 
 The full results of the favourite number survey are available on the site favouritenumber.net. 
 
 If you are interested in this area, I discuss the survey, the cultural importance of 7 and other issues about our psychological responses to numbers in my new book Alex Through the Looking-Glass, out this week in the UK. The book will be out in June in the USA, called The Grapes of Math. ||||| The number 13 is synonymous with bad luck. It's considered unlucky to have 13 guests at a dinner party, many buildings don't have a 13th floor and most people avoid getting married or buying a house on a day marked by this dreaded number. Particularly superstitious folks even avoid driving on Friday the 13th. 
 
 But is there any statistical proof to support the notion that Friday the 13th — or even just the number 13 itself — is unlucky? 
 
 "No data exists, and will never exist, to confirm that the number 13 is an unlucky number," said Igor Radun of the Human Factors and Safety Behavior Group at the University of Helsinki's Institute of Behavioural Sciences in Finland. "There is no reason to believe that any number would be lucky or unlucky." 
 
 Radun might very well be correct, but there are a few bits of scientific research that have given superstitious people a little more cause for concern, even if the scientists who performed the work aren't alarmed by their findings. [15 Weird Things Humans Do Every Day, and Why ] 
 
 For starters, in a 1993 study published in the British Medical Journal, researchers analyzed the traffic flow and number of injuries from car accidents on the southern section of London's M25 motorway during the five months that the 13th fell on a Friday between 1990 and 1992. 
 
 They compared these numbers to data collected on Friday the 6th of the same months, and found that although there are consistently fewer vehicles on the road during the 13th — possibly as a result of superstitious people choosing not to drive that day, the researchers proposed — "the risk of hospital admission as a result of a transport accident may be increased by as much as 52 percent" on the 13th. 
 
 But before triskaidekaphobics, or those who fear the number 13, say "I told you so," it should be noted that although the data were authentic, the authors didn't mean for their conclusions to be taken seriously. 
 
 "It's quite amusing and written with tongue firmly in cheek," said Robert Luben, a researcher at the school of clinical medicine at the University of Cambridge and one of the study's authors. "It was written for the Christmas edition of the British Medical Journal, which usually carries fun or spoof articles." 
 
 Many people took the study at face value, however, and it continues to be cited as valid evidence regarding the misfortune of both the number 13 and Friday the 13th . 
 
 "(Some people) clearly didn't understand that the paper was just a bit of fun and not to be taken seriously," Luben told Life's Little Mysteries. "Many also assumed that the authors were 'believers.' I'm sure that most of these people hadn't read the paper, which suggests that people being superstitious affects their behavior." 
 
 Since the 1993 study, other studies have been written showing that it's just women who have more accidents on Friday the 13th , with further studies concluding that's actually not the case. Other research results attempting to measure just how unlucky the number 13 is have been mixed. 
 
 For example, in 2005, the United Kingdom newspaper The Telegraph analyzed the winning lottery balls dating back to when the UK National Lottery began in 1994. They found that the number 13 was the unluckiest ball, because it was drawn a total of 120 times since 1994, compared with the luckiest ball, number 38, which was drawn a total of 182 times. But, "of course, there is no way of predicting which balls will be luckiest in the future," the article cautions. 
 
 Not everyone has found similar patterns. 
 
 "Unfortunately, most of studies dealing with Friday the 13th and the number 13 are solely focused on statistical data, such as accident data, stock exchange data, etc., without any attempt to establish a 'direct' relationship between belief, or superstition, and behavior," said Radun, who is co-author of the 2004 study "Females Do Not Have More Injury Road Accidents on Friday the 13th," which was published in the journal BMC Public Health. "Therefore, it is not surprising that contradictory results may occur … In our study, we did not find that either women or men have more injury road accidents on Friday the 13th compared to previous and following Fridays." [Superstitions Bring Real Luck, Study Reveals ] 
 
 Luben agrees that studies about statistics surrounding the number 13 should acknowledge how people's superstitions influence how they act. He wrote in his study that "superstitions affect behavior in all cultures in all parts of the world in some form or other." So whether you vow to never play the number 13 in a lottery or declare that 13 is your lucky number just to go against the grain, the stigma surrounding the number still influenced your decision. 
 
 "There are no lucky or unlucky numbers; they exist only in our heads – or in the heads of some of us – and they might become lucky or unlucky only if we make them as such," Radun said. 
 
 But many triskaidekaphobics, who count author Stephen King and former president Franklin Roosevelt among their ranks, don't need statistical evidence or hard facts to back up their conviction that the number is truly cursed. As with any superstition, no matter how irrational it may be, some people will still choose to believe in it. 
 
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– It's important stuff as a child: one's favorite number. And that penchant for a special digit doesn't necessarily fade as adulthood sets in. As Dana Mackenzie writes for Nautilus, it was a question that Guardian math blogger Alex Bellos fielded so frequently that he decided to turn the tables on his readers with favouritenumber.net, a website that asked people to select their favorite, and explain why. The victor, per the 30,025 responses Bellos analyzed: 7. Though 1,123 numbers received nods, almost half of respondents professed to loving a number between one and 10. Indeed, from that range only "one" and "10" failed to qualify for the top 10, replaced by 11 and 13. Speaking to PRI, Bellos says our seven obsession is an ancient one, dating back to Babylon. "You go back to the earliest writers we have, and there are more sevens there than any other number." But Bellos wasn't just interested in the what—he wanted to suss out the why. The most popular reason given for selecting a number was that it was the participant's birthday. But someone born on the 10th was "a lot less likely to choose" that 10 as his favorite than someone born on the 13th, he found. That's because we want an "exceptional" number, Bellos posits. Even numbers feel vague, which could be why he says 110 is the best candidate for least favorite number. He tells Nautilus, "We use round numbers to mean approximate things. When we say 100, we don’t usually mean exactly 100, we mean around 100. So 100 seems incredibly vague. Why would you have something as your favorite that is so vague?"