Personal ValuesValues Research & Tools

Personal value statistics: Meaningful work

Meaningful work appeared in the ranked ten of 15.2% of the 2,131,634 assessments completed since 2020, which makes it the 27th most frequently ranked of the 62 core values.

By , founder of personalvalu.esData updated

What meaningful work means as a value →

At a glance, 2020 to 2026

Appearance rateof assessments rank it in their ten. 27th of 62 values.
15.2%
First placeof assessments put it first. 32nd of 62 on this measure.
1.0%
Top threeof assessments put it in the top three. 21% of those who rank it.
3.2%
Average positionis its mean position, out of ten, where it is ranked at all.
6.3

In the overall ranking meaningful work sits just below Wisdom (15.5%) and just above Independence (14.8%).

How the Popularity of Meaningful work Has Changed

In 2020 meaningful work appeared in 17.4% of assessments and ranked 23rd. In 2026 so far it appeared in 14.7% and ranked 30th, a fall of 2.8 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.

Meaningful work, year by year

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

Meaningful work by year: assessments, appearance rate and rank, first place, top three and average position
YearAssessmentsAppearance rateRankFirst placeTop threeAverage position
202084,37817.4%23rd1.3%3.8%6.2
2021224,09617.0%24th▼11.1%3.5%6.4
2022179,27115.7%27th▼31.0%3.1%6.4
2023397,24915.8%27th1.0%3.1%6.4
2024460,24415.2%28th▼11.0%3.0%6.4
2025449,23313.5%32nd▼40.9%2.9%6.2
2026 so far337,16314.7%30th▲21.0%3.5%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 October 2026.

Meaningful work by Country

Of the 26 countries with enough assessments to publish, participants in Brazil rank meaningful work most often, at 25.5%, and those in Saudi Arabia least often, at 9.4%.

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 meaningful work is ranked most often

15.3% of participants rank meaningful work in their top ten, from 25.5% in Brazil to 9.4% in Saudi Arabia. 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 meaningful work by country, December 2025 to October 2026
CountryAppearance ratevs average (pp)Rank there
Brazil
25.5%
+10.18th of 62
United Kingdom
21.5%
+6.217th of 62
Germany
18.9%
+3.519th of 62
Ireland
18.6%
+3.320th of 62
Romania
18.5%
+3.220th of 62
Poland
17.9%
+2.620th of 62
Indonesia
17.1%
+1.824th of 62
Malaysia
16.7%
+1.425th of 62
Australia
16.3%
+0.921st of 62
Singapore
15.8%
+0.528th of 62
Canada
15.4%
+0.126th of 62
New Zealand
15.4%
+0.030th of 62
Netherlands
15.2%
−0.128th of 62
South Africa
15.1%
−0.227th of 62
United States
15.0%
−0.327th of 62
Switzerland
14.8%
−0.629th of 62
Vietnam
13.7%
−1.731st of 62
India
12.2%
−3.137th of 62
France
11.6%
−3.736th of 62
Hong Kong SAR China
11.1%
−4.237th of 62
Italy
11.0%
−4.340th of 62
Mexico
10.9%
−4.443rd of 62
Egypt
10.0%
−5.341st of 62
Philippines
10.0%
−5.342nd of 62
United Arab Emirates
9.8%
−5.649th of 62
Saudi Arabia
9.4%
−5.948th of 62

Every assessment with a known country, 15.3%

Meaningful work by Age

Meaningful work is ranked more often with age, from 9.1% of assessments among participants under 18 to 15.4% among those 65 and over, about 3.3 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 meaningful work by age band, December 2025 to October 2026
AgeAppearance ratevs average (pp)Rank there
Under 18
9.1%
−9.750th of 62
18–24
16.4%
−2.526th of 62
25–34
22.9%
+4.113th of 62
35–44
23.6%
+4.713th of 62
45–54
26.0%
+7.211th of 62
55–64
25.2%
+6.312th of 62
65 and over
15.4%
−3.426th of 62

Everyone who gave an age, 18.8%

Meaningful work by Gender

Women rank meaningful work more often than men, by 5.9 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 meaningful work by gender, December 2025 to October 2026
GenderAppearance ratevs average (pp)Rank there
Women
21.2%
+2.316th of 62
Men
15.3%
−3.626th of 62
Non-binary
21.6%
+2.717th of 62

Everyone who gave a gender, 18.9%

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 meaningful work 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 meaningful work stand among your own values? Rank your own values.

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