First Digit

The first digit of a number usually follows a pattern called Benford's Law, which roughly states that 1 should be the first in 30% of the values, 2 in 18% and 3 in 12% etc.

For a full understanding of this, search the World Wide Web for 'Benford's Law' using a search engine like Google.

The applications of this are simple and far-reaching in that if a set of numbers doesn't follow this rule when expected, something is amiss. Perhaps fraud!

See the related techniques for last digit.

Daisy has a mapping format, First Digit, specifically for this analysis.