Personal ValuesValues Research & Tools

Personal value statistics: Control

Control appeared in the ranked ten of 17.6% of the 2,099,004 assessments completed since 2020, which makes it the 22nd most frequently ranked of the 62 core values.

What control means as a value →

At a glance, 2020 to 2026

Appearance rateof assessments rank it in their ten. 22nd of 62 values.
17.6%
First placeof assessments put it first. 15th of 62 on this measure.
2.0%
Top threeof assessments put it in the top three. 34% of those who rank it.
6.0%
Average positionis its mean position, out of ten, where it is ranked at all.
5.3

In the overall ranking control sits just below Certainty (18.0%) and just above Success (17.5%).

How the Popularity of Control Has Changed

In 2020 control appeared in 18.2% of assessments and ranked 20th. In 2026 so far it appeared in 15.2% and ranked 27th, a fall of 3.0 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.

Control, year by year

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

Control by year: assessments, appearance rate and rank, first place, top three and average position
YearAssessmentsAppearance rateRankFirst placeTop threeAverage position
202084,37818.2%20th2.2%6.6%5.1
2021224,09618.2%19th▲12.3%6.9%5.0
2022179,27118.6%17th▲22.3%6.9%5.0
2023397,24918.2%21st▼42.1%6.6%5.1
2024460,24417.8%22nd▼12.0%6.3%5.2
2025449,23317.8%23rd▼11.9%5.8%5.5
2026 so far304,53315.2%27th▼41.3%4.1%5.9

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.

Control by Country

Of the 25 countries with enough assessments to publish, participants in Egypt rank control most often, at 24.0%, and those in Malaysia least often, at 11.7%.

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 control is ranked most often

15.1% of participants rank control in their top ten, from 24.0% in Egypt to 11.7% in Malaysia. Tap or hover a country to see its top values.

  • 11–13%
  • 13–15%
  • 15–18%
  • 18–20%
  • 20–22%
  • 22–24%
  • too few assessments
Appearance rate of control by country, December 2025 to September 2026
CountryAppearance ratevs average (pp)Rank there
Egypt
24.0%
+8.913th of 62
Poland
20.1%
+5.018th of 62
Singapore
20.1%
+5.018th of 62
France
18.7%
+3.723rd of 62
Switzerland
18.7%
+3.621st of 62
Mexico
18.6%
+3.518th of 62
India
18.2%
+3.121st of 62
Philippines
17.6%
+2.520th of 62
Hong Kong SAR China
17.6%
+2.520th of 62
Indonesia
17.3%
+2.224th of 62
United Kingdom
17.2%
+2.222nd of 62
United Arab Emirates
17.0%
+2.023rd of 62
Romania
16.7%
+1.723rd of 62
Netherlands
16.5%
+1.425th of 62
Ireland
16.1%
+1.026th of 62
Saudi Arabia
16.0%
+0.926th of 62
South Africa
15.2%
+0.127th of 62
Canada
14.9%
−0.228th of 62
Italy
14.7%
−0.427th of 62
United States
14.6%
−0.530th of 62
Germany
14.2%
−0.829th of 62
Australia
13.3%
−1.834th of 62
New Zealand
12.5%
−2.639th of 62
Brazil
12.1%
−3.040th of 62
Malaysia
11.7%
−3.444th of 62

Every assessment with a known country, 15.1%

Control by Age

Control is ranked less often with age, from 16.6% of assessments among participants under 18 to 12.4% among those 65 and over, about 1.5 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 control by age band, December 2025 to September 2026
AgeAppearance ratevs average (pp)Rank there
Under 18
16.6%
+2.623rd of 62
18–24
16.4%
+2.327th of 62
25–34
13.5%
−0.636th of 62
35–44
12.3%
−1.836th of 62
45–54
10.0%
−4.143rd of 62
55–64
10.1%
−4.043rd of 62
65 and over
12.4%
−1.738th of 62

Everyone who gave an age, 14.1%

Control by Gender

Men rank control more often than women, by 4.1 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 control by gender, December 2025 to September 2026
GenderAppearance ratevs average (pp)Rank there
Women
12.4%
−1.635th of 62
Men
16.5%
+2.523rd of 62
Non-binary
12.2%
−1.838th of 62

Everyone who gave a gender, 14.0%

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

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