One in a Million

... you're one in a million... once in a lifetime...
(lyrics off some generic love song)

Well now, are we really one in a million? Of course, we all know we are completely and utterly unique, but that hardly translates properly when you're looking at it form the point of view of being special now, does it?

So let's try to see if we can indeed, be one-in-a-million. Though that is itself is probably unimpressive - it means there ate at least 6,000 people on this planet who are like you, and three people in Singapore alone who are too.

To be fair and not use specific events of your life, I will use only attributes that can be found on Singapore's Department of Statistics:

I am a Chinese mongoloid, making me one-in-six people around the world. However, if we consider that I am a chinese mongoloid living in Singapore, that makes me only one-in-1.2 or so. Hmmm. We take the smaller statistic, considering that I am more concerned with my national significance.

A quick check at the education statistics show that I am, if I manage to graduate, only a pitiful one-out-of-five Singaporeans who do. Assuming that race and education are independant factors (which they are not, but I'm not about to argue that here), that makes me about one-in-six.

Still waaaay off mark.

Okay, I am a Singaporean who has attended an arts performance or exhibition in the past two years (albeit mostly trashy hall plays), which places me in the 27% of Singaporeans who still care about art at all. That makes me about 1/22 of the population, assuming the factors or ethnic race, education and arts-appreciation are independant of each other, which they are assuredly not, but I am too disheartened as it is to argue.

Oh! I forgot I'm male. That doubles my uniqueness immediately, placing me as being 1/44! (remember, that means that out of 44 people in Singapore, 1 will be exactly like me, a male Chinese 20-25 year old graduate Singaporean who patronizes artistic events)

I am also one of the 90% of the people my age group who are still single, making me... 1/48. This exercise seems hopeless.

Ah, religion! I am one of the 18% of Singaporeans my age-group who do not have one. Unfortunate, the godlessness of my generation, else I might have been more special in this respect. Okay, up to 1/266.

I live in a five-room flat with my parents when I'm not in hall. That boosts me up another 23% to 1/1,156.

Ahhh! I am one of 99.198% of Singaporeans who has not met with an crime and reported it this year. I doubt this statistic is of much use in upgrading my specialness level, though... For my brother it would shoot his uniqueness rating up the roof.

Given my subscriptions to CableTV, owning TV license, cinema-attendance, library loaning history and newspaper subscription, I'd say I can increase my uniqueness rating to about 1/1200, a pittance as my habits of public entertainment/information gathering are sadly common.

And... that's it! The other factors presented in the Department of Statistics are too small for me to even factor into my little report here. Out of every 1,200 Singaporeans my age there will be one who has all the attributes I listed above. Namely, male, chinese, a graduate, single, arts-going, areligous, crime-free, and with my reading/entertainment habits.

Nowhere near one in a million, I'm afraid. I guess this is the danger in letting yourself be labelled into a demographic by any statistician. All the interesting little traits of yours get lost.