Personal ValuesValues Research & Tools

Personal value statistics: Ambition

Ambition appeared in the ranked ten of 9.9% of the 2,099,004 assessments completed since 2020, which makes it the 46th most frequently ranked of the 62 core values.

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.
6.3

In the overall ranking ambition sits just below Determination (9.9%) 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 10.6% and ranked 44th, a fall of 0.3 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 far304,53310.6%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 September 2026.

Ambition by Country

Of the 25 countries with enough assessments to publish, participants in France rank ambition most often, at 26.7%, and those in Singapore least often, at 8.3%.

Country is recorded for the assessments from December 2025 to September 2026, so this section reads those 272,982 assessments and compares each country with all of them.

Where ambition is ranked most often

10.6% of participants rank ambition in their top ten, from 26.7% in France to 8.3% in Singapore. Tap or hover a country to see its top values.

  • 8–11%
  • 11–14%
  • 14–18%
  • 18–21%
  • 21–24%
  • 24–27%
  • too few assessments
Appearance rate of ambition by country, December 2025 to September 2026
CountryAppearance ratevs average (pp)Rank there
France
26.7%
+16.112th of 62
Switzerland
20.9%
+10.318th of 62
Italy
17.0%
+6.422nd of 62
Mexico
15.9%
+5.327th of 62
Netherlands
15.1%
+4.531st of 62
Poland
14.2%
+3.631st of 62
Romania
13.1%
+2.533rd of 62
Ireland
13.0%
+2.436th of 62
Saudi Arabia
12.5%
+1.935th of 62
Indonesia
12.1%
+1.542nd of 62
India
11.6%
+1.040th of 62
Germany
11.5%
+0.941st of 62
Australia
11.0%
+0.442nd of 62
Brazil
11.0%
+0.444th of 62
Egypt
10.9%
+0.335th of 62
South Africa
10.7%
+0.142nd of 62
New Zealand
10.7%
+0.141st of 62
Hong Kong SAR China
10.6%
−0.040th of 62
United Arab Emirates
10.4%
−0.245th of 62
Canada
10.3%
−0.443rd of 62
Malaysia
10.2%
−0.450th of 62
United States
10.2%
−0.445th of 62
United Kingdom
9.8%
−0.847th of 62
Philippines
9.5%
−1.145th of 62
Singapore
8.3%
−2.348th of 62

Every assessment with a known country, 10.6%

Ambition by Age

Ambition is ranked less often with age, from 11.9% of assessments among participants under 18 to 5.6% among those 65 and over, about 1.6 points per band.

Age is an optional question after the ranking, so this section reads the 66,624 assessments from December 2025 to September 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 September 2026
AgeAppearance ratevs average (pp)Rank there
Under 18
11.9%
+0.840th of 62
18–24
14.6%
+3.531st of 62
25–34
12.5%
+1.539th of 62
35–44
9.0%
−2.149th of 62
45–54
6.4%
−4.754th of 62
55–64
4.0%
−7.058th of 62
65 and over
5.6%
−5.558th of 62

Everyone who gave an age, 11.0%

Ambition by Gender

Men rank ambition more often than women, by 2.8 percentage points.

Gender is optional too, asked beside age, so this section reads the 64,656 assessments from December 2025 to September 2026 whose participants gave one. “Prefer not to say” is counted in no group.

Appearance rate of ambition by gender, December 2025 to September 2026
GenderAppearance ratevs average (pp)Rank there
Women
10.0%
−1.147th of 62
Men
12.8%
+1.839th of 62
Non-binary
7.7%
−3.350th of 62

Everyone who gave a gender, 11.0%

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

Where does ambition stand among your own values? Rank your own values.

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