I have a birthday coming up and wanted to share a wealth of statistics about birthdays that you may find entertaining. First is the “birthday problem.” Some of you probably encountered this one in a statistics class at some point.

The birthday problem is: How many people would need to be in a room in order for there to be a 50-percent chance that two share a birthday? This is a fun problem because the answer is surprising for many people. After all, we always seem surprised when we meet people we share a birthday with.

Often the answer you get is 183, or half of the number of days in most years (365). If you get 183 random people in a room and don’t have two sharing a birthday, I’ll send you $100.

For those more statistically-minded, you are probably thinking “Well, it’s definitely lower than 183.” But how low would you guess? 100? 50? Less?

The answer is 23.

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