Personal ValuesValues Research & Tools

Personal value statistics: Competence

Competence appeared in the ranked ten of 7.2% of the 2,131,634 assessments completed since 2020, which makes it the 51st most frequently ranked of the 62 core values.

By , founder of personalvalu.esData updated

What competence means as a value →

At a glance, 2020 to 2026

Appearance rateof assessments rank it in their ten. 51st of 62 values.
7.2%
First placeof assessments put it first. 54th of 62 on this measure.
0.3%
Top threeof assessments put it in the top three. 16% of those who rank it.
1.1%
Average positionis its mean position, out of ten, where it is ranked at all.
6.6

In the overall ranking competence sits just below Spirituality (7.7%) and just above Beauty (6.9%).

How the Popularity of Competence Has Changed

In 2020 competence appeared in 5.9% of assessments and ranked 54th. In 2026 so far it appeared in 9.6% and ranked 47th, a rise of 3.6 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.

Competence, year by year

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

Competence by year: assessments, appearance rate and rank, first place, top three and average position
YearAssessmentsAppearance rateRankFirst placeTop threeAverage position
202084,3785.9%54th0.2%0.9%6.7
2021224,0966.3%52nd▲20.2%0.9%6.8
2022179,2716.4%52nd0.2%0.9%6.8
2023397,2496.8%51st▲10.3%1.0%6.8
2024460,2447.0%51st0.3%1.0%6.8
2025449,2336.8%51st0.3%1.0%6.7
2026 so far337,1639.6%47th▲40.5%1.9%6.2

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.

Competence by Country

Of the 26 countries with enough assessments to publish, participants in Brazil rank competence most often, at 19.6%, and those in Egypt least often, at 6.1%.

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 competence is ranked most often

9.7% of participants rank competence in their top ten, from 19.6% in Brazil to 6.1% in Egypt. Tap or hover a country to see its top values.

  • 6–8%
  • 8–11%
  • 11–13%
  • 13–15%
  • 15–18%
  • 18–20%
  • too few assessments
Appearance rate of competence by country, December 2025 to October 2026
CountryAppearance ratevs average (pp)Rank there
Brazil
19.6%
+9.920th of 62
Singapore
14.5%
+4.831st of 62
Germany
14.0%
+4.332nd of 62
Indonesia
13.7%
+4.037th of 62
United Kingdom
12.4%
+2.736th of 62
France
12.1%
+2.335th of 62
Ireland
12.1%
+2.338th of 62
Malaysia
11.9%
+2.243rd of 62
Romania
11.4%
+1.739th of 62
Vietnam
11.0%
+1.340th of 62
Canada
10.2%
+0.543rd of 62
Australia
9.9%
+0.245th of 62
Netherlands
9.7%
+0.045th of 62
South Africa
9.6%
−0.147th of 62
Saudi Arabia
9.4%
−0.348th of 62
Poland
9.4%
−0.440th of 62
United States
9.3%
−0.447th of 62
Mexico
9.2%
−0.548th of 62
Philippines
9.0%
−0.747th of 62
Switzerland
8.8%
−0.946th of 62
New Zealand
8.1%
−1.652nd of 62
Hong Kong SAR China
7.9%
−1.947th of 62
United Arab Emirates
7.6%
−2.155th of 62
India
7.5%
−2.254th of 62
Italy
6.9%
−2.853rd of 62
Egypt
6.1%
−3.655th of 62

Every assessment with a known country, 9.7%

Competence by Age

Competence is ranked more often with age, from 7.1% of assessments among participants under 18 to 11.9% among those 65 and over, about 1.6 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 competence by age band, December 2025 to October 2026
AgeAppearance ratevs average (pp)Rank there
Under 18
7.1%
−5.454th of 62
18–24
11.8%
−0.743rd of 62
25–34
15.0%
+2.529th of 62
35–44
15.2%
+2.826th of 62
45–54
14.9%
+2.530th of 62
55–64
14.6%
+2.131st of 62
65 and over
11.9%
−0.642nd of 62

Everyone who gave an age, 12.5%

Competence by Gender

Men rank competence more often than women, by 1.2 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 competence by gender, December 2025 to October 2026
GenderAppearance ratevs average (pp)Rank there
Women
12.0%
−0.540th of 62
Men
13.2%
+0.737th of 62
Non-binary
14.3%
+1.831st of 62

Everyone who gave a gender, 12.5%

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 competence 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 competence stand among your own values? Rank your own values.

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