Personal ValuesValues Research & Tools

Personal value statistics: Meaningful work

Meaningful work appeared in the ranked ten of 15.2% of the 2,099,004 assessments completed since 2020, which makes it the 27th most frequently ranked of the 62 core values.

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. 31st of 62 on this measure.
1.0%
Top threeof assessments put it in the top three. 21% of those who rank it.
3.1%
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 Ethics (15.5%) and just above Helpfulness (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 14.3% and ranked 31st, a fall of 3.2 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 far304,53314.3%31st▲11.0%3.4%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.

Meaningful work by Country

Of the 25 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 8.7%.

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 meaningful work is ranked most often

14.9% of participants rank meaningful work in their top ten, from 25.5% in Brazil to 8.7% in Saudi Arabia. Tap or hover a country to see its top values.

  • 8–11%
  • 11–14%
  • 14–17%
  • 17–20%
  • 20–23%
  • 23–26%
  • too few assessments
Appearance rate of meaningful work by country, December 2025 to September 2026
CountryAppearance ratevs average (pp)Rank there
Brazil
25.5%
+10.58th of 62
United Kingdom
20.6%
+5.718th of 62
Romania
18.6%
+3.620th of 62
Poland
18.4%
+3.520th of 62
Germany
18.3%
+3.421st of 62
Ireland
17.4%
+2.520th of 62
Malaysia
16.3%
+1.424th of 62
Indonesia
16.0%
+1.127th of 62
Australia
16.0%
+1.124th of 62
New Zealand
15.3%
+0.431st of 62
Canada
15.2%
+0.326th of 62
Netherlands
15.1%
+0.232nd of 62
United States
14.7%
−0.228th of 62
South Africa
14.7%
−0.229th of 62
Singapore
14.3%
−0.731st of 62
Switzerland
14.0%
−1.033rd of 62
India
11.8%
−3.239th of 62
Hong Kong SAR China
11.1%
−3.837th of 62
Italy
11.0%
−3.940th of 62
Egypt
9.7%
−5.240th of 62
France
9.6%
−5.342nd of 62
Mexico
9.6%
−5.445th of 62
Philippines
9.5%
−5.444th of 62
United Arab Emirates
9.1%
−5.850th of 62
Saudi Arabia
8.7%
−6.249th of 62

Every assessment with a known country, 14.9%

Meaningful work by Age

Meaningful work is ranked more often with age, from 8.8% of assessments among participants under 18 to 15.6% among those 65 and over, about 3.3 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 meaningful work by age band, December 2025 to September 2026
AgeAppearance ratevs average (pp)Rank there
Under 18
8.8%
−9.550th of 62
18–24
15.7%
−2.628th of 62
25–34
22.3%
+4.013th of 62
35–44
23.0%
+4.613th of 62
45–54
25.6%
+7.211th of 62
55–64
24.8%
+6.513th of 62
65 and over
15.6%
−2.723rd of 62

Everyone who gave an age, 18.3%

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 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 meaningful work by gender, December 2025 to September 2026
GenderAppearance ratevs average (pp)Rank there
Women
20.7%
+2.317th of 62
Men
14.8%
−3.629th of 62
Non-binary
22.1%
+3.715th of 62

Everyone who gave a gender, 18.4%

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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