Cirencester Friendly has found that British people are overwhelmingly optimistic when it comes to considering what may happen to them in the future.

A survey by Censuswide asked over 2,000 adults across the country which situations they thought are likely to happen in the future, including being involved in a road traffic accident, being unable to work for 12 weeks or more due to illness or injury, winning the lottery jackpot and getting divorced.

60% of people questioned didn’t think any of these were likely to happen to them, with only 4% of people saying they are likely to get a divorce, compared with the actual UK divorce figure of 42%; 86% thought they’ll never be involved in a road traffic accident, despite there being 384 road accidents each day in the UK, and only 12% believing they might be unable to work for 12 weeks or more due to sickness or accident.

In addition, 10% thought it was likely that they would win the UK lottery jackpot when statistically, one in 45 million people wins the jackpot.

Rebecca Young, head of marketing at Cirencester Friendly, said: “While taking an optimistic view of life is to be applauded, it seems the British public might be slightly unrealistic when considering what might happen to them in the future, with many adopting the ‘it won’t happen to me’ approach.

“Each year thousands of people are unable to work due to illness or injury, yet our survey found only 7% of the population have income protection in place to safeguard their finances in this instance. We hope these findings serve as a reminder that whilst having an optimistic outlook is positive, people should also consider protecting themselves from the unforeseen. Unfortunately falling ill or having an accident does happen and Britons need to ensure that they are able to stay afloat, financially, if the worst does occur.”