Many psychological studies have attempted to define a sort of average national character based on aggregated results from the Big Five personality traits. Many of them are behind paywalls. One of the most recent studies was conducted by Petri Kajonius and Erik Mac Giolla (2017). It is also possibly the largest ever with 130,602 participants from 22 countries (average of 6000 participants by country).
N = Neuroticism
E = Extraversion
O = Openness to experience
A = Agreeableness
C = Conscientiousness
I have sorted the countries by score for each trait. Those in red have a negative score (meaning the opposite of the trait). Blue means a score of 0 (neutral).
Ranking of countries by neuroticism
=> English-speaking countries are more neurotic (anxious, stressed, irritable, depressed), with the UK on top.
Ranking of countries by extraversion
=> Hot and sunny countries tend to be more extraverted, except in East Asia.
Ranking of countries by openness to experience
=> Interestingly the countries most open to experience happen to be those with strong social security (and high taxes) and more egalitarian values.
Ranking of countries by agreeableness
=> Scandinavia & Ireland on top alongside immigration countries (Australia, NZ, Canada, USA).
Ranking of countries by conscientiousness
=> Harder to find a pattern.
Another large study is Schmitt et al. (2007), which involved over 17,000 people from 56 different nations around the world (average of 300 participants by country). Here is the summary table.
Top 5 for Extraversion
Top 5 for Agreeableness
Top 5 for Conscientiousness
Top 5 for Neuroticism
Top 5 for Openness
The method differs between the two studies, but personally I find the former to be much more accurate. That is certainly because it has 20x more samples by country.
N = Neuroticism
E = Extraversion
O = Openness to experience
A = Agreeableness
C = Conscientiousness
I have sorted the countries by score for each trait. Those in red have a negative score (meaning the opposite of the trait). Blue means a score of 0 (neutral).
Ranking of countries by neuroticism
- United Kingdom
- Ireland
- Singapore
- Malaysia & South Africa
- Australia
- Canada
- Finland, India & New Zealand
- USA
- Hong Kong
- South Korea
- France
- Mexico
- Germany
- Norway
- Sweden
- Netherlands
- China
- Romania
=> English-speaking countries are more neurotic (anxious, stressed, irritable, depressed), with the UK on top.
Ranking of countries by extraversion
- Mexico
- Romania
- Philippines
- USA
- India
- Ireland
- Australia
- Netherlands & South Africa
- France & Germany
- Singapore
- Canada
- United Kingdom
- Norway
- New Zealand
- Sweden
- Hong Kong
- China
- South Korea
- Finland
=> Hot and sunny countries tend to be more extraverted, except in East Asia.
Ranking of countries by openness to experience
- France
- Finland
- Sweden
- Norway
- Netherlands
- Germany & Romania
- Ireland
- Mexico
- India
- United Kingdom
- New Zealand
- Australia
- South Africa
- Canada
- Philippines
- China
- USA
- Hong Kong
- Malaysia, Singapore & South Korea
=> Interestingly the countries most open to experience happen to be those with strong social security (and high taxes) and more egalitarian values.
Ranking of countries by agreeableness
- Ireland
- Australia & Norway
- Sweden
- India
- Canada
- New Zealand
- Netherlands & USA
- South Africa
- United Kingdom
- Romania
- Philippines
- France
- Malaysia
- Finland
- Mexico
- Germany
- China
- Hong Kong
- South Korea
=> Scandinavia & Ireland on top alongside immigration countries (Australia, NZ, Canada, USA).
Ranking of countries by conscientiousness
- Romania
- USA
- India
- Mexico
- China
- South Africa
- Germany
- Canada
- Malaysia
- Australia
- New Zealand, Netherlands & Philippines
- France & Hong Kong
- Sweden
- Norway
- South Korea
- Singapore
- Ireland
- United Kingdom
- Finland
=> Harder to find a pattern.
Another large study is Schmitt et al. (2007), which involved over 17,000 people from 56 different nations around the world (average of 300 participants by country). Here is the summary table.
Top 5 for Extraversion
- Serbia
- Croatia
- Turkey
- Indonesia
- Congo
Top 5 for Agreeableness
- Congo
- Jordan
- Greece
- Botswana
- Ethiopia
Top 5 for Conscientiousness
- Congo
- Ethiopia
- Tanzania
- Israel
- Zimbabwe
Top 5 for Neuroticism
- Japan
- Argentina
- South Korea
- Belgium
- Brazil
Top 5 for Openness
- Chile
- Belgium
- Bangladesh
- Estonia
- Romania
The method differs between the two studies, but personally I find the former to be much more accurate. That is certainly because it has 20x more samples by country.
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