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Personality Atlas
South Africa: personality profile
Based on 2,394 people in South Africa who answered the same 50 Big Five questions as our free test, scored exactly like it.
The most common types in South Africa are ISTP (The Tinkerer), INTP (The Analyst) and ENFJ (The Mentor).
Stands out
Compared with other countries, test-takers in South Africa stand out most on Conscientiousness: they rank 3 of 62 for being organized.
Personality twin
The country whose average traits are closest to South Africa is Canada. Also close: United States, Australia.
Average traits
Average percentile on each trait (50 = the middle of our norm group). The grey marker shows the average country.
Out of every 100 test-takers
All 16 types
Share of test-takers with each four-letter type, and how much more or less common it is than in the average country.
Clearly more common than in the average country: INFJ (+73%), ISFJ (+47%), ESFJ (+38%).
Clearly less common: ESTP (−50%), ESTJ (−29%), ISTP (−28%).
| Type | Share | vs average country |
|---|---|---|
| ISTPThe Tinkerer | 10.7% | 28% less common |
| INTPThe Analyst | 10% | about average |
| ENFJThe Mentor | 9.7% | 34% more common |
| INTJThe Strategist | 9.6% | 20% more common |
| ISTJThe Steward | 8% | about average |
| INFJThe Visionary | 7.3% | 73% more common |
| ENFPThe Spark | 6.5% | about average |
| ENTJThe Director | 5.6% | about average |
| ISFJThe Caretaker | 5.6% | 47% more common |
| ESFJThe Host | 5.4% | 38% more common |
| ENTPThe Innovator | 4.9% | 24% less common |
| INFPThe Idealist | 4.8% | 10% more common |
| ISFPThe Artisan | 3.3% | 16% less common |
| ESFPThe Enthusiast | 3% | 14% less common |
| ESTJThe Organizer | 2.9% | 29% less common |
| ESTPThe Operator | 2.8% | 50% less common |
Composed or responsive?
Emotional stability is the trait the four letters leave out. In South Africa, 53% of test-takers get the composed C letter (average country: 50%); the rest get the responsive R letter.
Compare with another country
These are self-selected online test-takers, not a representative sample of any country. Averages describe groups, never individuals.
About this data
Where does this data come from?
From the IPIP-FFM dataset that Open Psychometrics released for research: 1,015,341 responses (2016–2018) to the same 50 public-domain Big Five items our free test uses. The country comes from each respondent’s internet connection; it was not asked. We kept 593,520 responses after cleaning and scored them exactly like our test.
How was the data cleaned?
We kept only one response per internet address, responses with all 50 items answered, tests that took at least 75 seconds, and responses that did not give the same answer to every item. A country gets a profile when at least 500 responses remain; 62 countries qualify.
Are the results representative of each country?
No. These are people who chose to take an English-language personality test online, so they are younger, more online and more English-speaking than their countries as a whole. Differences between countries are real for this sample, but they are not a portrait of a nation, and they never tell you about any one person.
Why five traits and not six?
This dataset has the five Big Five traits but not Honesty-Humility (the M/A letter), so the Atlas shows the 16 four-letter types and the composed/responsive C/R letter, not all 64 types.
What is the “average country”?
The plain average of all countries in the Atlas, each counted equally, so the largest samples (such as the United States) don’t dominate the comparison.
Open Psychometrics, IPIP-FFM data (2016–2018): openpsychometrics.org/_rawdata. Items: International Personality Item Pool, ipip.ori.org.