Which is the world's favorite number according to British scientists?

A survey launched by a British mathematics writer has found that seven is the world’s favorite number, reports "The Guardian".

Alex Bellos said he started the survey because of his belief that people have strong feelings about numbers, something he learned from giving talks about math in schools, colleges and festivals. “I am always asked for my favorite number – it’s guaranteed this question will come up,” he said.

Bellos, whose new book is entitled "The Grapes of Math", claimed he received over 30,000 responses within a few weeks of launching the survey, with total responses currently standing at 44,000.

The third-most popular number is 8, because, as some of Bellos’s respondents wrote, “In Japan, eight is a lucky number, because the Japanese character for eight means ‘an opening to the future’” and “because of its symmetrical and round shape and because it has always given me a sense of friendliness and warmth (unlike, for example, 9 which looks ‘bossy’ or 6 which appears to me a bit submissive).”

No. 2 on the list is the No. 3, because “It’s curly, but not pretentious curly like eight” and because in Chinese, “3 means alive.”

But the world’s most favorite number is No. 7. As for why, Bello will explain that himself. It’s basically because of our desire to be outliers when it comes to arithmetical patterns.

As for why numbers ending in 0 or 5 are unpopular, Bellos said it’s because we use those numbers as approximations more than, say, 7 or 9.