IPIP-NEO

Open data · updated daily

Who we are now: personality in numbers

We aggregate every IPIP-NEO test taken on this site, strip it of anything personal, and compare it with the norms of the 2000s. This page shows how people answer 300 and 120 questions about themselves right now, by age, sex, language, time of day and as couples.

61,523

tests taken on the site

Analysis updated November 10, 2026

Share of today's test-takers above the 2000s average

  • Openness to Experience47%
  • Conscientiousness35%
  • Extraversion29%
  • Agreeableness40%
  • Neuroticism63%

If nothing had changed, every bar would sit at 50%.

57,596
profiles analyzed after cleaning
25
test languages
613
couples compared profiles
26
median age

Five key findings

Each one is free to quote with a link to this page. The numbers are recalculated every day, so please add the date to your citation.

  1. 1

    Today's test-takers are more anxious and far less outgoing than those of the 2000s

    Compared with people of the same sex and age in the 2000s norms, today's test-takers shift by +0.34 SD on Neuroticism and −0.53 SD on Extraversion. 63% now score above the old average for Neuroticism, and only 29% for Extraversion. The shift is strongest among the youngest.

    Details ↓
  2. 2

    People grow calmer and more organized with age

    From ages 16-19 to 60+, average Neuroticism falls from 53.4 to 44.0 out of 100, Conscientiousness rises from 56.3 to 66.7, and Agreeableness from 59.1 to 66.6. The maturity effect known from the research literature shows up in our data almost by the textbook.

    Details ↓
  3. 3

    People who take the test at night are more anxious and less organized

    We compared people of the same age, sex and language. Those taking the test between midnight and 5 a.m. local time differ from daytime test-takers by +0.18 SD on Neuroticism and −0.20 SD on Conscientiousness.

    Details ↓
  4. 4

    Opposites don't attract: couples share values, not temperament

    Across 613 couples, none of the five traits showed an inverse relationship. Partners are most alike in Openness (r = 0.18), and within it in their values and views (r = 0.35). On Neuroticism there is almost no similarity at all (r = 0.07).

    Details ↓
  5. 5

    Women and men are closer together in our data than in the 2000s data

    The sex difference in Agreeableness is 0.30 SD in our data versus 0.52 SD in Johnson's norms, and 0.32 versus 0.41 for Neuroticism. Our sample is far more international, and research has long shown that personality sex differences are largest in Western countries.

    Details ↓

Then and now

Every test-taker is compared with people of their own sex and age in John A. Johnson's norms: 521,748 records from the online test of the late 1990s and 2000s. Zero on the scale means "same as back then".

The shift is noticeable: Neuroticism +0.34 SD, Extraversion −0.53 SD, Conscientiousness −0.37 SD, Agreeableness −0.32 SD. Openness has barely moved (−0.08 SD). For reference, 0.2 SD counts as a small effect and 0.5 SD as a medium one.

What matters most is how the shift spreads across ages. For 16-20-year-olds the Extraversion shift is −0.70 SD, for 41-60-year-olds only −0.22 SD. Neuroticism follows the same pattern: +0.41 SD for the youngest against +0.22 SD for the older group. If the gap came only from differences in the test form, it would be the same at every age.

English-language test-takers alone, who answer the very same items as in the 2000s, show the same picture: Neuroticism +0.26 SD, Extraversion −0.32 SD, Agreeableness −0.25 SD, Conscientiousness −0.19 SD.

This compares two samples of website visitors. It does not follow the same people over 20 years. The limitations are listed in the methods section.

Shift from the 2000s norms, in SD
← lower than thenhigher than then →Openness to Experience−0.08Conscientiousness−0.37Extraversion−0.53Agreeableness−0.32Neuroticism+0.34−0.500.00+0.50standard deviations from the 2000s average
Show as table
ScaleSD
Openness to Experience−0.08
Conscientiousness−0.37
Extraversion−0.53
Agreeableness−0.32
Neuroticism+0.34
Shift by age group
Openness to ExperienceConscientiousnessExtraversionAgreeablenessNeuroticism
−0.500.00+0.5016-2021-3031-4041-6061+standard deviations from the 2000s average
Show as table
Openness to ExperienceConscientiousnessExtraversionAgreeablenessNeuroticismn
16-20−0.07−0.32−0.70−0.32+0.4111,372
21-30−0.04−0.41−0.54−0.26+0.3419,302
31-40−0.04−0.15−0.49−0.16+0.209,788
41-600.00−0.36−0.22−0.41+0.227,012
61+−0.03−0.43−0.26−0.32+0.34919

The closer a line is to zero, the less that group differs from people the same age in the 2000s. The Extraversion line climbs with age: the young show the strongest shift.

All 30 facets: what moved the most
← lower than thenhigher than then →Vulnerability+0.38Depression+0.35Anxiety+0.35Self-Consciousness+0.30Liberalism+0.19Anger+0.12Modesty+0.09Imagination+0.09Cautiousness+0.06Cooperation−0.03Immoderation−0.03Orderliness−0.05Emotionality−0.10Artistic Interests−0.12Adventurousness−0.16Excitement-Seeking−0.20Sympathy−0.21Intellect−0.24Cheerfulness−0.28Activity Level−0.30Dutifulness−0.31Trust−0.34Self-Discipline−0.37Morality−0.39Assertiveness−0.41Altruism−0.42Achievement-Striving−0.46Gregariousness−0.49Friendliness−0.56Self-Efficacy−0.70−0.500.00+0.50standard deviations from the 2000s average
Show as table
ScaleSD
Vulnerability+0.38
Depression+0.35
Anxiety+0.35
Self-Consciousness+0.30
Liberalism+0.19
Anger+0.12
Modesty+0.09
Imagination+0.09
Cautiousness+0.06
Cooperation−0.03
Immoderation−0.03
Orderliness−0.05
Emotionality−0.10
Artistic Interests−0.12
Adventurousness−0.16
Excitement-Seeking−0.20
Sympathy−0.21
Intellect−0.24
Cheerfulness−0.28
Activity Level−0.30
Dutifulness−0.31
Trust−0.34
Self-Discipline−0.37
Morality−0.39
Assertiveness−0.41
Altruism−0.42
Achievement-Striving−0.46
Gregariousness−0.49
Friendliness−0.56
Self-Efficacy−0.70

The biggest rise is in Vulnerability (+0.38 SD), the biggest fall in Self-Efficacy (−0.70 SD).

Personality matures

Average scores on a 0-100 scale across eight age groups. The "All" curve is balanced by sex: it is the mean of the women's and men's curves.

This is one of the most robust findings in personality psychology, and our data reproduce it. From 16-19 to 60+, Neuroticism falls from 53.4 to 44.0, Conscientiousness rises from 56.3 to 66.7, and Agreeableness from 59.1 to 66.6.

Openness and Extraversion barely change with age. That is exactly how the curves look in large studies, which is a good sign that the site's data behave like real data.

Average score by age
Openness to ExperienceConscientiousnessExtraversionAgreeablenessNeuroticism
4050607016-1925-2935-3950-59score from 0 to 100
Show as table
Openness to ExperienceConscientiousnessExtraversionAgreeablenessNeuroticismn
16-1962.756.351.059.153.48,620
20-2464.459.251.360.751.411,734
25-2964.961.351.061.950.38,769
30-3464.463.251.462.549.06,129
35-3964.264.752.163.347.94,413
40-4964.166.553.464.545.55,245
50-5964.167.653.666.544.02,394
60+62.566.753.066.644.01,089

Groups smaller than 100 people are not shown.

Personality at 3 a.m.

We convert the time of each test to local time using the test language, and keep only languages with one main time zone: Russian, Japanese, Chinese, German and about twenty more.

Night-time test-takers are younger than daytime ones, so a simple comparison would be unfair. We compared people of the same age, sex and language who took the test at night (0-5 a.m.) and during the day (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.). That comparison includes 2,976 night-time tests.

The gap holds: Neuroticism +0.18 SD, Conscientiousness −0.20 SD, Agreeableness −0.11 SD. It appears separately in Russian, Chinese and Japanese. The data cannot say which way causation runs: perhaps people who can't sleep because of worry are simply more likely to take the test at night.

Neuroticism and Conscientiousness by hour of the test
NeuroticismConscientiousness
night−0.500.00+0.5005101520local time, hours
Show as table
hNeuroticismConscientiousnessn
0:00+0.48−0.541,235
1:00+0.54−0.64831
2:00+0.55−0.67573
3:00+0.53−0.73386
4:00+0.49−0.60281
5:00+0.46−0.61257
6:00+0.32−0.59286
7:00+0.33−0.38439
8:00+0.25−0.36825
9:00+0.21−0.331,182
10:00+0.30−0.381,541
11:00+0.33−0.391,522
12:00+0.31−0.381,402
13:00+0.29−0.381,692
14:00+0.27−0.361,769
15:00+0.29−0.361,750
16:00+0.34−0.411,599
17:00+0.30−0.391,562
18:00+0.36−0.431,519
19:00+0.36−0.431,501
20:00+0.34−0.421,664
21:00+0.37−0.441,742
22:00+0.38−0.491,675
23:00+0.42−0.561,574
Night versus day for people of the same age, sex and language, in SD
Openness to Experience+0.07Conscientiousness−0.20Extraversion−0.13Agreeableness−0.11Neuroticism+0.18−0.200.00+0.20SD

A positive value means higher at night than during the day.

Couples: do opposites attract?

In the couples section, two people take the test and compare profiles. This analysis covers 613 couples after the same cleaning applied to every test.

The data's answer is no. Partners are not opposites on any trait. Similarity is modest, and strongest for Openness (r = 0.18). Within Openness, partners are most alike in their values and views (r = 0.35). On Neuroticism there is almost no similarity (r = 0.07).

To avoid mistaking shared age and culture for shared personality, we adjust for sex and age and compare real couples with random pairs of people who took the test in the same language. The gray band on the chart shows how much "similarity" chance alone would produce.

The person who invites a partner to compare is, on average, more open than everyone else (Openness +0.21 SD versus −0.08 SD for all test-takers) and calmer (Neuroticism +0.17 SD versus +0.34 SD). In mixed-sex couples, the woman scores higher on Neuroticism than her partner in 70% of cases.

2
years: median age gap
57%
of mixed-sex couples where the man is older
70%
of couples where the woman is more anxious
57%
of invitations sent by men
How similar partners are
partner correlation, rrandom pairs
Openness to Experience0.18Conscientiousness0.10Extraversion0.10Agreeableness0.08Neuroticism0.070.000.20partner correlation, r

A dot to the right of the gray band means the similarity is not explained by chance.

Facets where partners are most alike
Liberalism0.35Sympathy0.22Artistic Interests0.18Achievement-Striving0.17Morality0.16Altruism0.140.000.100.200.300.40partner correlation, r
Who invites a partner to compare
invitersall test-takers
Openness to ExperienceConscientiousnessExtraversionAgreeablenessNeuroticism−0.500.00+0.50SD

Average shift from the 2000s norms, in SD.

Women and men

Sex differences in standard deviations: a positive value means women score higher. We compute them within each language so that audience mix does not affect the result.

The familiar pattern holds: on average, women score higher on Neuroticism (0.32 SD) and Agreeableness (0.30 SD). Both gaps are smaller than in Johnson's norms (0.41 and 0.52), and the Openness gap has almost vanished (0.08 versus 0.18).

This fits a well-known cross-cultural finding: personality sex differences are larger in Western countries, and our sample is far more international than Johnson's.

Sex differences: our data and the 2000s norms
our dataJohnson, 2000s
← men higherwomen higher →Openness to ExperienceConscientiousnessExtraversionAgreeablenessNeuroticism0.000.50d
Show all 30 facets
← men higherwomen higher →AnxietyAngerDepressionSelf-ConsciousnessImmoderationVulnerabilityFriendlinessGregariousnessAssertivenessActivity LevelExcitement-SeekingCheerfulnessImaginationArtistic InterestsEmotionalityAdventurousnessIntellectLiberalismTrustMoralityAltruismCooperationModestySympathySelf-EfficacyOrderlinessDutifulnessAchievement-StrivingSelf-DisciplineCautiousness−0.500.000.50d
Show as table
Scaleour dataJohnson, 2000s
Openness to Experience0.080.18
Conscientiousness0.020.11
Extraversion0.060.11
Agreeableness0.300.52
Neuroticism0.320.41
Anxiety0.370.55
Anger0.360.26
Depression0.110.17
Self-Consciousness0.140.14
Immoderation0.030.22
Vulnerability0.430.53
Friendliness0.030.15
Gregariousness0.110.13
Assertiveness−0.05−0.07
Activity Level0.080.25
Excitement-Seeking−0.06−0.17
Cheerfulness0.150.20
Imagination−0.09−0.06
Artistic Interests0.370.47
Emotionality0.430.60
Adventurousness−0.08−0.07
Intellect−0.36−0.25
Liberalism0.080.08
Trust0.010.06
Morality0.290.41
Altruism0.280.48
Cooperation0.140.26
Modesty0.200.39
Sympathy0.270.50
Self-Efficacy−0.10−0.07
Orderliness0.030.12
Dutifulness0.140.20
Achievement-Striving0.080.20
Self-Discipline0.040.11
Cautiousness−0.11−0.07

Cohen's d: 0.2 is a small difference, 0.5 a medium one.

By test language

Shift from the 2000s norms for languages with at least 200 test-takers. Each person is compared with their own sex and age group, so languages with different audiences can be compared with each other.

A language is not a country: Spanish is used across Spain and all of Latin America, English almost everywhere. Items in other languages are our own translations, and part of a gap may come from the translation itself. So the table does not show "national character". It shows how people answer in a particular test language.

LanguagePeopleWomenMedian ageOpenness to ExperienceConscientiousnessExtraversionAgreeablenessNeuroticism
English14,42952%29
+0.04
−0.19
−0.32
−0.25
+0.26
Spanish9,78627%25
+0.07
−0.46
−0.66
−0.04
+0.40
Chinese8,38855%24
−0.16
−0.35
−0.85
−0.42
+0.30
Russian6,43472%26
−0.25
−0.66
−0.54
−0.77
+0.41
Japanese3,18659%30
+0.03
−0.75
−0.71
−0.47
+0.50
French2,68860%28
+0.01
−0.25
−0.36
−0.21
+0.33
German1,84758%32
+0.06
−0.21
−0.18
−0.08
+0.14
Indonesian1,75579%21
−0.43
−0.35
−0.74
−0.38
+0.38
Portuguese1,58554%27
−0.27
−0.36
−0.56
−0.28
+0.44
Korean1,35362%31
−0.52
−0.25
−0.69
−0.59
+0.31
Arabic1,23071%22
−0.29
−0.27
−0.56
−0.62
+0.31
Italian89563%28
+0.11
−0.25
−0.32
−0.06
+0.30
Dutch60957%28
−0.13
−0.28
−0.02
+0.12
+0.05
Vietnamese58379%20
−0.32
−0.55
−0.85
−0.48
+0.60
Polish56855%30
−0.16
−0.52
−0.48
−0.47
+0.50
Turkish50375%21
0.00
−0.30
−0.36
−0.55
+0.42
Czech35661%34
−0.23
−0.35
−0.32
−0.20
+0.46
Swedish31863%38
−0.24
−0.23
−0.09
+0.19
+0.09
Ukrainian30470%27
−0.26
−0.51
−0.56
−0.69
+0.39
Romanian20466%29
0.00
−0.16
−0.24
−0.37
+0.28

A bar to the right: higher than people the same age in the 2000s; to the left: lower.

The data grows every day

Tests per month after cleaning. The averages barely move from month to month, so the findings do not rest on a single wave of visitors.

Tests per month after cleaning
1,979Jul 202611,717Aug 202615,062Sep 202624,978Oct 20263,860Nov 2026

The current month is incomplete.

How it is calculated

Everything you need to know before citing these data.

Who is in the sample

People who came to ipipneo.com on their own and took the IPIP-NEO-300 or IPIP-NEO-120 in one of 25 languages. This is not a random sample of the population: visitors are people interested in psychology, with a median age of 26.

How we clean the data

We drop tests answered faster than 1.5 seconds per item, long runs of identical answers, answers with almost no variation, exact duplicates and repeat tests from the same account (keeping the first). In total 3,595 tests (6%) were removed. The median completion time of the rest is 22 minutes for 300 items and 9 minutes for 120.

What we compare with

John A. Johnson's norms (Pennsylvania State University): 521,748 records from the online IPIP-NEO of the late 1990s and 2000s. Each test-taker is compared with the group of their own sex and age, and the result is expressed in standard deviations (SD) from that group's average.

How our test differs from the 2000s version

The items are the same, but the answer scale differs: ours asks how much you agree, Johnson's asked how accurately the statement describes you. Items in other languages are our own translations. Both differences can shift averages. That is why we show English-language test-takers separately and look at age: a shift that depends on age is hard to explain by the test form.

Waves of visitors

In October 2026 a Spanish-language science YouTuber featured the site in a video, and thousands of test-takers arrived within a few days, mostly men aged 20-27. Waves like this change the sample's makeup, so every comparison on this page is made within groups: against norms for the same sex and age, sex differences within each language, age curves separately by sex.

Night and day

Local time is inferred from the test language, using only languages with one main time zone. Night is compared with day within groups of the same age, sex and language.

Privacy

This page shows aggregates only. No names, emails or individual answers appear here, now or later. Groups smaller than 100 people are never published.

Updates

The full database is reanalyzed once a day, so the numbers shift slightly over time. Please include the date in your citation (latest update: November 10, 2026).

Use these data

The data are open to journalists, researchers, teachers and anyone interested in the topic.

License: CC BY 4.0

You may quote, retell, build your own charts and publish in articles, research and presentations, including commercial ones. One condition: a link to ipipneo.com/research.

creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

How to cite

IPIP-NEO Open Data. (2026). Big Five personality statistics: live data from 57,596 IPIP-NEO tests [Data set]. Retrieved November 10, 2026, from https://ipipneo.com/en/research

Download aggregates

CSV tableJSON snapshot

Dataset version 2026-11-10. The files contain aggregates only, never individual answers.

Need a different cut of the data or a comment for a story? Get in touch.

Frequently asked questions

How many people are in these data?

61,523 tests have been taken on the site so far. After cleaning, the analysis covers 57,596 profiles in 25 languages and 613 couples. The number grows every day.

Can I use the data in an article or a study?

Yes, under the CC BY 4.0 license with a link to ipipneo.com/research. A ready-made citation and files with the aggregates are on this page.

Is this a representative sample?

No. These are people who chose to take the test. That is why we compare them not with the general population but with similar visitors of the online test in the 2000s, adjusting for sex and age.

Why compare with Johnson's norms?

It is the largest open dataset for the IPIP-NEO: 521,748 records of the same questionnaire. The site uses the same norms to compute percentiles in every result.

How often are the numbers updated?

Once a day. The test counter at the top of the page is live, and the analysis is rerun daily on the full database.

Become part of the data

Take the test: you get your own profile across 5 traits and 30 facets, and your anonymous result joins tomorrow's update.

Free, no sign-up, results right away