Many of us dive in and out of playing the National Lottery, often with a lucky dip. 

Others religiously stick to the same numbers they've played for decades while many simply ignore it all together, a long shot, an epic waste of money, an idiot tax.

Wherever you sit on this spectrum, it's likely you have a lucky number or two – dates of birthdays are popular, the shirt number of a favourite footballer perhaps or the number of letters in the name of your pet gerbil.

We have analysed the numbers drawn in the twice-a-week Lotto and twice-a-week Euromillions to see if there are any patterns.

Starting with the Lotto, which costs £2 a line and is on a Wednesday and Saturday, you pick six numbers.

In the draw, six numbers are picked from a machine – plus a bonus ball. If your main six numbers match, you win the jackpot, which varies. 

The jackpot tomorrow is £10.2million – but it can be shared, and it can also rollover if it is not won.

If you match five numbers and the bonus ball, you win £1million while five numbers alone will see you win £1,750.

Crunching the numbers drawn since Lotto changed to 1-59 from 1-49 balls on 10 October 2015 – some 1,084 draws – the most drawn numbers are 37 and 42, each appearing 127 times.

This is followed by 52, picked 126 times, and 39 and 58, picked 125 times each. Finally, 11 is the sixth most drawn number, coming out 124 times.

The lowest drawn number is 21, picked 93 times, followed by 30 at 98 times. Then 44 and 48 are tied at 99 times each, 55 picked 100 times and 26, coming out 101 times.

Luckiest numbers: 11, 37, 39, 42, 52, 58

Unluckiest numbers: 21, 26, 30, 44, 48, 55

Of course, the draw is completely random – and the chances of either line above winning the jackpot is 1 in 45,057,474.

We ran the six luckiest numbers on the Lotto app to see how many times you would have won in the past 180 days. There were four wins (1x £30, matching three numbers and 3x free lucky dips for matching two numbers).

On the six unluckiest numbers, this also had four wins - all of them were matching two numbers, to win a lucky dip ticket for a future draw. 

What are the luckiest Euromillions numbers?

With the Euromillions, the draw is on a Tuesday and Friday with each line played costing £2.50. 

Unlike the Lotto, players across Europe take part in this one, including those in Belgium, France, Ireland and Spain.

Those in the UK have scooped the most jackpots, closely followed by France and Spain – a clear top three.

For this one, you pick five main numbers and two 'lucky star' numbers. 

The main numbers are between 1-59, and the lucky stars between 1-12.

That's been the way since 24 September 2016, when an extra lucky star number was added.

In terms of the lucky stars, the most frequently drawn is the number 3, which has come out 190 times, followed by 2, drawn 189 times based on the 983 draws analysed.

The two unluckiest are 4 (drawn 146 times) and 1 (drawn 147 times).

With the main numbers, 42 is luckiest, coming out of the machine 118 times. 

This is followed by 20 and 21, out 114 times apiece, 29 (113 times) and 17 (112 times).

The five least drawn numbers start with 22, drawn just 69 times, followed by 40 (82 times), 18 (85 times), 43 (86 times) and 1 (87 times).

Luckiest numbers: 17, 20, 21, 29, 42 – lucky stars: 2, 3

Unluckiest numbers: 1, 18, 22, 40, 43 – lucky stars: 1, 4

Again, both of these have the exact same chance of winning – the odds of scooping the jackpot, which tend to be far higher than the Lotto, are a massive 1 in 139,838,16.

On the luckiest numbers, over 180 days, there was eight wins. The highest was for matching three numbers, for a win of £4.30. 

Two wins were for two numbers, plus a lucky star for £3.50 and £3.30, and five for two numbers matched, scooping £2.60 or £2.50, depending on the week.

For the unluckiest numbers, they won four times - three were for matching two numbers, and the other was a £3.90 win for two numbers and a lucky star.