Mick Jagger
Want to become the next Sir Paul McCartney, Tony Blair or Brad Pitt? A new study suggests that the order you are born in could play a significant role in determining your chances of success!
The research released today reveals that first born children are more than 3.5 times more likely than their siblings to become Rock Stars while youngest children are more than twice as likely to become a successful actor than their siblings.
Moreover the findings suggest that middle children could be pre-destined for a life in politics - with all three of the recent leadership candidates being middle children.
The study was carried out by renowned statistician Dr Geoff Ellis and commissioned to celebrate the launch of Outnumbered Series 1 which airs on UKTV Gold on Tuesday 2nd June at 7.30pm.
The research team studied 100 personalities encompassing the last 20 British Prime Ministers, British Pop Stars, Sports Personalities, BAFTA winning actors and British Self Made Multi Millionaires to provide a series of compelling insights relating to birth order and occupation.
The UKTV Gold Outnumbered Report’s key findings include:
* Oldest children are over three and a half times more likely to become rock stars than their younger siblings. Three quarters (75%) of the study sample of rock stars were oldest or only children with common personality that include being ambitious, energetic, people pleasers that crave approval.
Famous Rock Stars that follow this trend include Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and only children Van Morrison, Elton John and Eric Clapton.
* Middle children are more likely to become the Prime Minister, with 67% more chance than their siblings. Traits commonly associated with middle children include being diplomatic, a competitive nature and a tendency to be peacemakers.
Interestingly Gordon Brown, Nick Clegg and David Cameron are all middle children along with Tony Blair, Anthony Eden, Neville Chamberlain and David Lloyd George. Furthermore, the trend is for Prime Ministers to come from large families of between three and six children this suggests bringing into play the competitive and flexible nature found in middle children, which seems to help them rise to the top in the cut throat world of politics.
* Youngest children are more than twice as likely to become actors than their older siblings. Half (50%) of the study sample of actors were youngest children - commonly characterised by personality traits such as risk taking, attention seeking, hard working and having a good sense of humour.
Renowned Actors who follow this trend within the study sample included Kevin Spacey, Julia Roberts, Daniel Day-Lewis, Reese Witherspoon, Judi Dench and Annette Bening.
* Only children are least likely to become Self-Made millionaires - no examples from the sample studied. This suggests that the desire to outdo siblings may be part of the driving force which lies behind successful entrepreneurs.
Interestingly, several brothers were found in this category such as David and Simon Reuben famous for their metals business and the Millbank Centre, Eddie and Malcolm Healey famous for MeadowHall and Hygena and David and Frederick Barclay famous for Littlewoods and the Telegraph - suggesting a bit of competition isn’t always a bad thing.
* The study found that Sports Stars appear to come from all categories of children with an even split between the birth orders
Dr Geoff Ellis who conducted the UKTV Gold Outnumbered Study comments ‘Whilst statistics can’t prove causality, it can test the significance of patterns in data.
"When all the data is considered together, a simple Chi-square test suggests than there is a less than 1% chance of the relationship between sibling group and role type being down to chance alone.
"When Rock stars are considered in isolation against the rest of the sample group, the probability of the results being purely random are reduced to less than one in a thousand.
Tamsyn Zietsman, Head of Publicity UKTV said ‘The UKTV Gold Outnumbered Study shows that birth order really can play a part in determining which occupations may suit you best, which could determine whether you’re more likely to become the next Cheryl Cole or David Cameron.'
Outnumbered is the hugely popular the BAFTA nominated sitcom that follows the daily chaos of family life with two parents and three young children locked in an unequal contest.
The show has strong elements of improvisation and is an honest portrayal of the well meaning parental incompetence that happens in most homes as Mum and Dad attempt to raise their kids with the minimum of emotional damage for all concerned.
Outnumbered Series 1 premieres on UKTV Gold on Wednesday 2nd June at 7.30pm.