diff --git a/workflow/conf/multiqc_config.yaml b/workflow/conf/multiqc_config.yaml
index 5e3933562e3f05e769c36e1ce1e7c16a57ea50be..db6a335a8e5e6f8677dd8c433d391c6fd5224751 100644
--- a/workflow/conf/multiqc_config.yaml
+++ b/workflow/conf/multiqc_config.yaml
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ custom_data:
         plot_type: 'table'
         pconfig:
             id: 'meta'
+            format: '{:,.0f}'
         headers:
             Source
             Species
diff --git a/workflow/rna-seq.nf b/workflow/rna-seq.nf
index 7dd69e5f5fee5ee2bc89572b527d230e6cd1e450..efeb0f12ab54021fa9bd8dd480f1a0c9c2f8ff3d 100644
--- a/workflow/rna-seq.nf
+++ b/workflow/rna-seq.nf
@@ -239,7 +239,7 @@ process parseMetadata {
 
     # get read length metadata
     readLength=\$(python3 ${script_parseMeta} -r ${repRID} -m "${experimentSettings}" -p readLength)
-    if [ "\${readLength}" == "nan"]
+    if [ "\${readLength}" = "nan"]
     then
       readLength="NA"
     fi