Personal ValuesValues Research & Tools

Personal value statistics: Ambition

Ambition appeared in the ranked ten of 9.9% of the 2,131,634 assessments completed since 2020, which makes it the 46th most frequently ranked of the 62 core values.

By , founder of personalvalu.esData updated

What ambition means as a value →

At a glance, 2020 to 2026

Appearance rateof assessments rank it in their ten. 46th of 62 values.
9.9%
First placeof assessments put it first. 39th of 62 on this measure.
0.6%
Top threeof assessments put it in the top three. 21% of those who rank it.
2.1%
Average positionis its mean position, out of ten, where it is ranked at all.
6.2

In the overall ranking ambition sits just below Determination (10.0%) and just above Commitment (9.2%).

How the Popularity of Ambition Has Changed

In 2020 ambition appeared in 10.8% of assessments and ranked 42nd. In 2026 so far it appeared in 10.8% and ranked 44th, a fall of 0.0 percentage points.

Pick a measure, and read it by year or month by month. A month holds a few thousand assessments, so it moves more than a year does. The gaps are months the archive has no data for.

Ambition, year by year

Each rank is among the 62 values that year, by appearance rate. The arrow is its move from the year before.

Ambition by year: assessments, appearance rate and rank, first place, top three and average position
YearAssessmentsAppearance rateRankFirst placeTop threeAverage position
202084,37810.8%42nd0.7%2.2%6.3
2021224,0969.8%44th▼20.6%1.9%6.4
2022179,2719.3%47th▼30.5%1.8%6.4
2023397,2499.7%46th▲10.6%1.9%6.4
2024460,24410.0%44th▲20.6%2.0%6.3
2025449,2339.5%44th0.6%2.0%6.2
2026 so far337,16310.8%44th0.8%2.7%5.8

2020 holds 6 months of data and 2022 holds 7 months of data, so their figures cover part of the year. 2026 covers January to October 2026.

Ambition by Country

Of the 26 countries with enough assessments to publish, participants in France rank ambition most often, at 26.0%, and those in the Philippines least often, at 9.7%.

Country is recorded for the assessments from December 2025 to October 2026, so this section reads those 300,899 assessments and compares each country with all of them.

Where ambition is ranked most often

10.9% of participants rank ambition in their top ten, from 26.0% in France to 9.7% in the Philippines. Tap or hover a country to see its top values.

  • 9–12%
  • 12–15%
  • 15–18%
  • 18–20%
  • 20–23%
  • 23–26%
  • too few assessments
Appearance rate of ambition by country, December 2025 to October 2026
CountryAppearance ratevs average (pp)Rank there
France
26.0%
+15.212th of 62
Switzerland
21.1%
+10.317th of 62
Mexico
17.0%
+6.222nd of 62
Italy
17.0%
+6.222nd of 62
Vietnam
16.6%
+5.724th of 62
Netherlands
15.1%
+4.231st of 62
Poland
14.1%
+3.333rd of 62
United Arab Emirates
13.4%
+2.632nd of 62
Saudi Arabia
13.2%
+2.333rd of 62
Romania
12.9%
+2.133rd of 62
Indonesia
12.1%
+1.343rd of 62
Egypt
12.1%
+1.234th of 62
Ireland
12.1%
+1.238th of 62
India
11.7%
+0.940th of 62
Germany
11.7%
+0.939th of 62
Australia
11.1%
+0.342nd of 62
Brazil
11.0%
+0.144th of 62
South Africa
10.9%
+0.142nd of 62
Malaysia
10.8%
−0.147th of 62
New Zealand
10.7%
−0.141st of 62
United Kingdom
10.6%
−0.245th of 62
Hong Kong SAR China
10.6%
−0.340th of 62
United States
10.4%
−0.545th of 62
Canada
10.2%
−0.744th of 62
Singapore
9.9%
−1.044th of 62
Philippines
9.7%
−1.144th of 62

Every assessment with a known country, 10.9%

Ambition by Age

Ambition is ranked less often with age, from 12.2% of assessments among participants under 18 to 5.6% among those 65 and over, about 1.7 points per band.

Age is an optional question after the ranking, so this section reads the 75,449 assessments from December 2025 to October 2026 whose participants gave one. A difference between bands mixes what changes as people age with what differs between generations.

Appearance rate of ambition by age band, December 2025 to October 2026
AgeAppearance ratevs average (pp)Rank there
Under 18
12.2%
+0.939th of 62
18–24
14.8%
+3.630th of 62
25–34
12.6%
+1.438th of 62
35–44
9.2%
−2.048th of 62
45–54
6.3%
−5.054th of 62
55–64
3.9%
−7.358th of 62
65 and over
5.6%
−5.658th of 62

Everyone who gave an age, 11.2%

Ambition by Gender

Men rank ambition more often than women, by 2.9 percentage points.

Gender is optional too, asked beside age, so this section reads the 73,168 assessments from December 2025 to October 2026 whose participants gave one. “Prefer not to say” is counted in no group.

Appearance rate of ambition by gender, December 2025 to October 2026
GenderAppearance ratevs average (pp)Rank there
Women
10.1%
−1.147th of 62
Men
13.0%
+1.839th of 62
Non-binary
7.3%
−3.950th of 62

Everyone who gave a gender, 11.2%

About These Figures

Every figure on this page is a share of completed assessments on Personalvalu.es, read from the same aggregates as the Global Values Research. The appearance rate is how often ambition is among a participant's ten most important values. It is not a score, and a difference between groups describes the participants in them without explaining it.

How the aggregates are built, and why some countries and groups are left out, is set out in the methodology. Month-by-month figures for every value are in the monthly archive.

Statistics for every value

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