How are the odds calculated for getting struck by lightning?

Question

I would have to think it would be the number of strikes divided by something, but by what? What would be the best denominator in order to give some idea of the odds of this occurence? Certainly by using the number of people in the world it would yield too small a number.

Answer 1

To get the answer, take the total number of people and compare to the number struck by lightning during a certain time period.

There are about 110 people struck by lightning each year in the U.S. and 75% are fatal. The US population is about 300,000,000. So the chances are 300,000,000 to 110 against; or about 2,727,272 chances to one against being hit by lightning per year.

For the percentage, divide 110 by 300 million (0.00003666667%).

About 2000 people die each year in the entire world from lightning strikes out of a population of 6.67 billion.

Due to the small number of units (people) in the U.S. data sample, the variation must be large.

.

Answer 2

I am not really positive but i think the saying is that if you hear thunder you have a good chance of getting struck by lightning.