Friday 13th is the least popular date to move house

Superstitious people avoid moving house on Friday 13th, a new report from Registers of Scotland has suggested.

Friday is the most popular day of the week for people to get the keys to their new home, but numbers plummet on what some regard as the unluckiest day of the year.

Registers of Scotland (RoS) figures show that house moves drop by over half on Friday 13th.

Drop

Looking at data from April 2004 to March 2020 and based on date of entry from the application for registration, RoS found that, on average, there were 1,168 house moves on Fridays that do not land on the 13th - but on Friday 13th, the average fell to 538 moves.

Figures shows that on the last Friday 13th – in March 2020 – there were 610 house moves. A week earlier, on Friday 6th March 2020, there had been 955 house moves, and seven days late, on Friday 20th March there were 1,101 house moves.

And on the Friday 13th before that – in December 2019 – there were 934 house moves. A week earlier, on Friday 6th December 2019, there had been 1,434 house moves, and seven days later on Friday 20th December 2019 there were 835 moves (the proximity to Christmas likely affecting the number of house moves on this date).

Superstition

Commenting on the data, Registers of Scotland Accountable Officer, Janet Egdell said: “We can’t definitively say that people are superstitious about moving house on Friday 13th.

"However, our data does indicate that, while people overwhelmingly prefer to move house on a Friday compared with any other day in the week, there is a significant drop in the number of people doing so where this lands on the 13th day in the month.

“It looks as though Friday 13th is a much less popular Friday to move than the others in the year. We look forward to seeing whether this trend continues this year.

"To those that are moving house today we hope that it is as stress-free as possible. For the superstitious among you please take extra care when moving mirrors between properties and maybe avoid opening any umbrellas inside your new home.”

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