Number 21

In Lightning Lotto under the 5/49 · since May 2026 rules — 140 draws, 5 from 1–49.

13times drawn · chance expected 14 −0.36σ

13draws waiting · a wait this long: 27% for any number

10.3average wait between appearances · chance says 9.8

41longest completed wait · 15% chance of one at least that long

21 is drawn as often as chance explains

Drawn 13 times in 140 draws against 14.3 expected, −0.36σ. Each draw is independent: after 13 draws away it is exactly as likely tonight as a number drawn yesterday.

Number 21, draw by draw

Drawn 13 times in 140 draws · average wait 10.3 draws · longest completed wait 41 · waiting 13 draws now

a completed wait — darker is longer the wait still running — a lower bound, not a finished gap

Where it lands in a sorted draw

Sort a draw and 21 has a favourite seat — chance gives a small number the low positions more often. That is the shape of sorting, not of the machine.

1st smallest2 · chance 1.4
2nd smallest3 · chance 4.4
3rd smallest5 · chance 4.8
4th smallest3 · chance 2.1
5th smallest0 · chance 0.3

Every position’s lane →

The company it keeps

Seen most often with these — chance gives every partner about 1.1 shared draws, and the leaders are simply the ones that came out ahead this time.

26 10 29 4 6 11

Never drawn alongside 13 of the other 48 numbers; chance expects about 16 such strangers by now. Every pair →

How many people play it

Under the crowd model, 21 is picked about 1.22× as often as an indifferent choice — 15th most popular of 49. That changes nothing about whether it comes up, and everything about how many ways a jackpot on it would be shared.

Numbers 1–31 — the birthday zone ×1.22

The model and its sources → · What people believe about 21 →

Every draw it appeared in

Date	Wait	Position	The draw
2026-09-29	13	2nd	14 21 29 43 49
2026-09-16	17	1st	21 26 33 36 44
2026-08-30	6	4th	4 10 17 21 29
2026-08-24	12	2nd	12 21

What this cannot tell you

Nothing here predicts the next draw. A number’s history is a record of a fair machine’s past, and the machine keeps none of it: 21 is drawn with probability 5/49 tonight whatever it did last week.