‘What’s a stat that sounds fake but is 100 per cent true?’ – 16 facts that are slightly hard to swallow
Even if you hated maths in school, and are relieved that the teachers’ warnings that you wouldn’t be able to carry a calculator with you at all times turned out to be sooooo wrong, you probably still love a wacky statistic.
For example, when you shuffle a pack of cards, the resulting order has almost certainly never happened before, because with 52 cards in a pack, the number of ways they can be ordered is 52 factorial – 52 times 51 times 50, etc. That figure is 8 times 10 to the power of 67.
Over on Twitter, Connor_LFC8 put out a call for unlikely statistics.
What’s a stat that sounds fake but is 100% true?
— Connor (@Connor_LFC8) January 14, 2026
Now, we’re not sure some of these people understood quite what makes something a statistic, but they were all within the spirit of the request.
Let’s dive in.
1.
In 2014, footballers were statistically more likely to be bitten by Luis Suarez than a shark. https://t.co/giZGl2uY3q
— Lexis (@niilexis) January 22, 2026
2.
Redheads require about 20% more anesthesia than people with other hair colors.
Scientists are unsure why anesthesia, both general and local, is less effective for redheads, but it may be linked to the MC1R gene mutation that causes hair to be red. https://t.co/7VZGLpp4OP
— Encyclopaedia Britannica (@Britannica) January 24, 2026
3.
If you earned $5,000 per hour every day since the birth of Christ, you still wouldn't be as rich as Elon Musk. https://t.co/CagfUpM5qG
— Satoshi Wakamoto (@ItsBrianGee) January 22, 2026
4.
Sharks are older than trees.
— Arne Eichberg (@ArneEichberg) January 24, 2026
5.
A hole dug straight through the center of the Earth starting off the coast of Japan will emerge off the coast of Chile, still in the Pacific Ocean 🌊🤙🏻
— DizzyBigIsland🌋🧷 (@philipbelanger3) January 24, 2026
6.
70% of the waste in your body gets out via your breath
— andrew p guindon (@AndrewGuindon) January 24, 2026
7.
The wealth of a particular individual resident in Lagos state is more than the GDP of the entire country of Sierra Leone, by far!
But per capita income of a Sierra Leonean is more than that of a Nigerian.
Interestingly, there are more poor people living in Lagos alone than the… https://t.co/MWvz3lVUtW
— Olabanji Kareem (@olabanjiikareem) January 25, 2026
8.
Stalin knew that the US was building an atomic weapon
before Truman, who months later dropped the bombs,
learnt about it. https://t.co/EHHpbPj7KS— Nikos Sotirakopoulos (@Nikos_17) January 22, 2026