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Which Country Is the Most Extraverted? The Big Five in 48 Countries

A world map of the Big Five from 584,535 people in 48 countries. The Netherlands and Norway come out most extraverted, Brazil least. Explore every trait and country, and see why country comparisons need care.

Big Five Editorial Team · 4 min read
Which Country Is the Most Extraverted? The Big Five in 48 Countries

The short answer: In a large online sample, the Netherlands, Norway and Denmark come out as the most extraverted countries, and Brazil, Portugal and Poland as the least. But the differences between countries are small next to the differences between people in the same country, and comparing countries on self-reports has pitfalls. Explore the map yourself below, and read why the numbers deserve a little skepticism.

Key findings

  • Most extraverted: the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark and Ireland. Least: Brazil, Portugal, Poland and Vietnam.
  • Calmest (lowest neuroticism): the Netherlands, Switzerland, Thailand, Sweden and Norway. Highest: Greece, Russia, Poland and the Philippines.
  • Most open to experience: Switzerland, Israel, Germany and France.
  • Norway stands out: second most extraverted of 48 countries, among the most conscientious and agreeable, and among the calmest.
  • Finland is the Nordic exception, with lower extraversion and agreeableness than its neighbours.
  • Even between the most and least extraverted country, the difference is only about half of how much people vary within one country. Most countries differ by less than that.

Explore the map

The Big Five on the world mapPick a trait. Darker countries score higher on it, compared with the other countries. Tap or hover a country for its score and rank, and click to compare it below.
Fiji · Too few peopleTanzania · Too few peopleWestern Sahara · Too few peopleCanada: 48 · #22 of 48United States: 48 · #16 of 48Kazakhstan · Too few peopleUzbekistan · Too few peoplePapua New Guinea · Too few peopleIndonesia: 44 · #43 of 48Argentina: 46 · #35 of 48Chile: 46 · #32 of 48Congo - Kinshasa · Too few peopleSomalia · Too few peopleKenya · Too few peopleSudan · Too few peopleChad · Too few peopleHaiti · Too few peopleDominican Republic · Too few peopleRussia: 44 · #42 of 48Bahamas · Too few peopleFalkland Islands · Too few peopleNorway: 51 · #2 of 48Greenland · Too few peopleFrench Southern Territories · Too few peopleTimor-Leste · Too few peopleSouth Africa: 47 · #31 of 48Lesotho · Too few peopleMexico: 48 · #21 of 48Uruguay · Too few peopleBrazil: 40 · #48 of 48Bolivia · Too few peoplePeru: 48 · #15 of 48Colombia: 47 · #24 of 48Panama · Too few peopleCosta Rica · Too few peopleNicaragua · Too few peopleHonduras · Too few peopleEl Salvador · Too few peopleGuatemala · Too few peopleBelize · Too few peopleVenezuela · Too few peopleGuyana · Too few peopleSuriname · Too few peopleFrance: 46 · #34 of 48Ecuador · Too few peoplePuerto Rico · Too few peopleJamaica · Too few peopleCuba · Too few peopleZimbabwe · Too few peopleBotswana · Too few peopleNamibia · Too few peopleSenegal · Too few peopleMali · Too few peopleMauritania · Too few peopleBenin · Too few peopleNiger · Too few peopleNigeria · Too few peopleCameroon · Too few peopleTogo · Too few peopleGhana · Too few peopleCôte d’Ivoire · Too few peopleGuinea · Too few peopleGuinea-Bissau · Too few peopleLiberia · Too few peopleSierra Leone · Too few peopleBurkina Faso · Too few peopleCentral African Republic · Too few peopleCongo - Brazzaville · Too few peopleGabon · Too few peopleEquatorial Guinea · Too few peopleZambia · Too few peopleMalawi · Too few peopleMozambique · Too few peopleEswatini · Too few peopleAngola · Too few peopleBurundi · Too few peopleIsrael: 49 · #5 of 48Lebanon · Too few peopleMadagascar · Too few peoplePalestinian Territories · Too few peopleGambia · Too few peopleTunisia · Too few peopleAlgeria · Too few peopleJordan · Too few peopleUnited Arab Emirates: 49 · #6 of 48Qatar · Too few peopleKuwait · Too few peopleIraq · Too few peopleOman · Too few peopleVanuatu · Too few peopleCambodia · Too few peopleThailand: 48 · #19 of 48Laos · Too few peopleMyanmar (Burma) · Too few peopleVietnam: 42 · #45 of 48North Korea · Too few peopleSouth Korea: 47 · #28 of 48Mongolia · Too few peopleIndia: 49 · #13 of 48Bangladesh · Too few peopleBhutan · Too few peopleNepal · Too few peoplePakistan: 49 · #7 of 48Afghanistan · Too few peopleTajikistan · Too few peopleKyrgyzstan · Too few peopleTurkmenistan · Too few peopleIran · Too few peopleSyria · Too few peopleArmenia · Too few peopleSweden: 49 · #9 of 48Belarus · Too few peopleUkraine · Too few peoplePoland: 42 · #46 of 48Austria: 49 · #8 of 48Hungary: 45 · #37 of 48Moldova · Too few peopleRomania: 47 · #29 of 48Lithuania · Too few peopleLatvia · Too few peopleEstonia · Too few peopleGermany: 46 · #36 of 48Bulgaria · Too few peopleGreece: 47 · #30 of 48Türkiye: 47 · #26 of 48Albania · Too few peopleCroatia: 47 · #25 of 48Switzerland: 49 · #10 of 48Luxembourg · Too few peopleBelgium: 48 · #17 of 48Netherlands: 52 · #1 of 48Portugal: 42 · #47 of 48Spain: 49 · #11 of 48Ireland: 50 · #4 of 48New Caledonia · Too few peopleSolomon Islands · Too few peopleNew Zealand: 48 · #18 of 48Australia: 49 · #12 of 48Sri Lanka · Too few peopleChina · Too few peopleTaiwan · Too few peopleItaly: 46 · #33 of 48Denmark: 50 · #3 of 48United Kingdom: 48 · #20 of 48Iceland · Too few peopleAzerbaijan · Too few peopleGeorgia · Too few peoplePhilippines: 44 · #44 of 48Malaysia: 45 · #38 of 48Brunei · Too few peopleSlovenia · Too few peopleFinland: 45 · #39 of 48Slovakia · Too few peopleCzechia: 45 · #40 of 48Eritrea · Too few peopleJapan: 48 · #14 of 48Paraguay · Too few peopleYemen · Too few peopleSaudi Arabia · Too few people · Too few peopleCyprus · Too few peopleMorocco · Too few peopleEgypt · Too few peopleLibya · Too few peopleEthiopia · Too few peopleDjibouti · Too few people · Too few peopleUganda · Too few peopleRwanda · Too few peopleBosnia & Herzegovina · Too few peopleNorth Macedonia · Too few peopleSerbia: 47 · #27 of 48Montenegro · Too few people · Too few peopleTrinidad & Tobago · Too few peopleSouth Sudan · Too few people

LowerHigherToo few people

United States compared with the average of 48 countriesUnited States is among the highest on Conscientiousness and Agreeableness of the 48 countries.

United StatesAverage of 48 countries

  • Openness74 · 73Hardly any difference#28 of 48
  • Conscientiousness60 · 56Small difference · 4 points higher#3 of 48
  • Extraversion48 · 47Hardly any difference#16 of 48
  • Agreeableness71 · 66Small difference · 5 points higher#2 of 48
  • Neuroticism51 · 53Hardly any difference#39 of 48
Where United States stands outThe statements where people in United States answered most differently from the average of the countries (1 = disagree, 5 = agree). Even these differences are small.
  • I feel little concern for othersAgree lessUnited States 2.0 · average 2.6
  • I am easily disturbedAgree lessUnited States 2.7 · average 3.1
  • I follow a scheduleAgree moreUnited States 3.3 · average 3.0
  • I shirk my dutiesAgree lessUnited States 2.4 · average 2.7
Every country: Extraversion

Each score has a margin of error of about half a point to a point, so countries less than a point apart are effectively tied.

Data: 584,535 people in 48 countries who took a 50-statement Big Five test online in English in 2016–2018 (Open Psychometrics). Scores from 0 to 100. Only countries with at least 1,000 people are shown. Differences are compared with how much people vary within a country: under a fifth of that is hardly any difference.

Norway and the quiet Scandinavian

Norwegians are often described, not least by themselves, as reserved: they keep to themselves on the bus and need a few drinks before they talk to strangers. In this data, Norwegians describe themselves as more outgoing than people in almost any other country, and as calm and conscientious.

How can both be true? A personality test asks how you see yourself compared with the people around you. Many questions are about behaviour among people you know: talking to many people at parties, starting conversations. The stereotype is often about how strangers behave in public. And Norwegians who take an English personality test online are not all Norwegians. Finland, on the other hand, matches its quiet reputation better: it is among the least extraverted countries here.

Why country comparisons are tricky

The test was in English. Everyone took the same 50 statements in English. For most people outside the English-speaking world, that is a second language. Openness is measured partly with statements like "I have a rich vocabulary" and "I use difficult words", so it is no surprise that countries where English is a second language score lower on openness.

The samples are not the population. The people who take an English personality test online in Brazil or Vietnam are younger, more educated and more used to English than the average person there. In the United States, the sample is broader.

People compare themselves with those around them. When you rate how organised you are, you compare yourself with your own culture. This is called the reference-group effect. One study found that the countries whose people rated themselves as least conscientious, such as Japan, scored among the highest on behaviour that reflects conscientiousness, such as punctuality and the accuracy of public clocks (Heine, Buchtel & Norenzayan, 2008).

Stereotypes rarely match. A study of 49 cultures compared what people believe about the typical person in their country with measured personality in the same country. The beliefs had almost nothing to do with the measurements (Terracciano et al., 2005).

The differences are small. People within the same country differ far more than countries do. Knowing someone's country tells you very little about their personality.

What larger studies find

Researchers have compared countries with translated tests and more careful sampling. The largest of these studied 56 nations and found regional patterns, but also that the differences between countries are modest and partly shaped by how people answer questionnaires (Schmitt et al., 2007). The safest conclusion is the same as here: there are some real average differences, but they are small, and self-reports alone cannot settle them.

Where the data comes from

The numbers come from the open research data of Open Psychometrics, where people took a 50-statement version of the Big Five test (Goldberg's IPIP Big-Five Factor Markers) between 2016 and 2018. The country was determined from the internet address, not asked. We kept one answer per internet address, removed incomplete and implausibly fast or slow answers, and show countries with at least 1,000 people: 584,535 people in 48 countries. Scores run from 0 to 100.

The 50 statements are not the same as in our test, so you cannot compare your own result directly with the map. For that, see how women and men of different ages score, which uses the same statements as our test.

Sources

  • Open Psychometrics. IPIP Big-Five Factor Markers data, 2016–2018. openpsychometrics.org/_rawdata.
  • Goldberg, L. R. (1992). The development of markers for the Big-Five factor structure. Psychological Assessment, 4(1), 26–42. IPIP.
  • Heine, S. J., Buchtel, E. E., & Norenzayan, A. (2008). What do cross-national comparisons of personality traits tell us? The case of conscientiousness. Psychological Science, 19(4), 309–313. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02085.x
  • Schmitt, D. P., Allik, J., McCrae, R. R., & Benet-Martínez, V. (2007). The geographic distribution of Big Five personality traits: Patterns and profiles of human self-description across 56 nations. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 38(2), 173–212. doi:10.1177/0022022106297299
  • Terracciano, A., et al. (2005). National character does not reflect mean personality trait levels in 49 cultures. Science, 310(5745), 96–100. doi:10.1126/science.1117199
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