⚡ Struck by lightning vs 🤢 Getting food poisoning
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You're 2,550× more likely to get food poisoning
than to be struck by lightning
Periods differ: Getting food poisoning is framed as per year (US), while Struck by lightning is lifetime (US). The multiplier is a raw ratio of the 1-in-X figures — not a normalized lifetime risk. Compare cautiously.
How we calculated this
Each figure is “1 in X.” The larger X is the rarer event. Dividing that number by the more common one gives the multiplier: you're 2,550× more likely to get food poisoning. When the periods differ, this is a raw ratio of those figures, not a lifetime-normalized risk.
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You're 2,550× more likely to get food poisoning (1 in 6, per year (US)) than to be struck by lightning (1 in 15,300, lifetime (US)). ⚠️ Periods differ (per year (US) vs lifetime (US)) — compare cautiously. — How Likely Is That? https://www.howlikelyisthat.com/compare/odds-of-being-struck-by-lightning-vs-odds-of-food-poisoning
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