The National Lottery in figures

The National Lottery has handed out over £90 billion in prizes and created more than 6,800 millionaires or multimillionaires since its launch.

Josie Clarke
Thursday 01 February 2024 03:01 EST
File photo dated 06/01/16 of a National Lottery sign outside a newsagent in north London.
File photo dated 06/01/16 of a National Lottery sign outside a newsagent in north London. (PA Wire)

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As the National Lottery changes hands for the first time since its launch almost 30 years ago, here is a look at the game in numbers.

– The National Lottery has handed out over £90 billion in prizes and created more than 6,800 millionaires or multimillionaires since its launch.

– More than 670,000 good cause projects have received National Lottery funding, the equivalent of 240 grants in every postcode district, and £5 million has been handed to good causes every day.

– In the year to March 31 2023, the National Lottery had more than 10.7 million active registered online players, with one in five UK adults playing online over the period, according to Camelot.

Mobile continued to grow as the digital channel of choice for players, with £2.7 billion of total digital sales coming from tablets and smartphones – up £311.3 million on the year before.

Sales on the National Lottery app – which was downloaded 2.5 million times in 2022/23 – accounted for more than 70% of mobile sales.

– A participation survey for the year to March 2023 found that 27.6% of the population participated in National Lottery draws on a regular basis

– In 2023, 37 was the luckiest number, appearing 18 times in millionaire-making wins. The next luckiest numbers were 42, 22, 12, 20 and 23.

– The least drawn balls were 18, 25, 38 and 40, all of which were drawn just five times.

– The luckiest number on EuroMillions was 34, rolling out 19 times, followed by 21, 33, 35 and 44.

– The luckiest of the Lucky Stars was number 10 followed by 3.

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