Analysts calculate clubbers' pulling power

Fancy a snog? If so your chances are getting better all the time, according to market analysts who have tried to work out the mathematical likelihood of getting off with a stranger in a nightclub on any given night.

Consumer confidence in the ability to "pull" is one of the driving factors in the clubbing industry's success, says a report for the bank HSBC. The more you fancy your chances, apparently, the more you are likely to go out on the town and spend.

The good news for lonely hearts is that "as the number of single people in the UK increases, so does the number of people who want to go out and meet people and potentially find a partner, which is to say that the 'marginal propensity to pull' is greater than O."

There really are plenty more fish in the sea, in other words. But the report is meant to advise HSBC staff and customers whether to invest in Luminar, the UK's leading nightclub operator – so the experts eschew plain speaking in favour of mathematical equations.

The calculations are complicated by the fact that some married people want to pull and some singles have no interest, so the closest the analysts can come to a conclusion is that if the number of single people in the country goes up by 10 per cent then the propensity to pull will rise, "but probably by less than 10 per cent".

Fewer people go to nightclubs now than they did five years ago, and they spend less per head. The report suggests clubs and bars will make money if they provide safe, stimulating places for people to meet each other and flirt.