A university student has discovered that finding the perfect partner is only 100 times more likely than finding an alien.

Economist Peter Backus, a 30-year-old tutor at the University of Warwick, has calculated that the chances of ending up with his dream woman are just 1 in 285,000, reports Click Liverpool.

Backus used a famous maths formula known as The Drake Equation, which was originally used to estimate the existence of extra-terrestrial life, to determine why he was single.

The complex equation takes into account the number of women in the country, then narrows it down to those aged 24 to 34, who live in his home city, are single, have a university education and would share a physical attraction with him.

In his "Why I Don't Have a Girlfriend" thesis, Backus found that of the 30 million women in the UK, only 26 would be suitable girlfriends.

"So, on a given night out in London there is a 0.0000034 per cent chance of meeting one of these special people. That's a 1 in 285,000 chance, so it's not great," the PhD hopeful surmised.

The Drake equation, developed in 1961 reads N = R* x Fp x Ne x Fi x Fc x L, and helped scientist Professor Drake predict there could be 10,000 civilisations in our galaxy.

"The research may sound depressing to people looking for love, but the good news for singles is, it's probably not your fault," Backus said.

In an interesting update, Backus has defied the odds by finding a girlfriend, who he's been dating for six months.