# What are the most common astrological signs?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-common-astrological-signs/214103>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 19, 2003, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-common-astrological-signs/214103 "2003-11-19T14:45:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-common-astrological-signs/214103/21 "2013-06-12T07:11:55Z")

</div>

> [@eburacum45](#):
>
> hmm  
> 1 Scorpio 0.094 %  
> 2 Virgo 0.093 %  
> 3 Gemini 0.092 %  
> 4 Pisces 0.090 %  
> 5 Libra 0.087 %  
> 6 Cancer 0.084 %  
> 7 Taurus 0.083 %  
> 8 Capricorn 0.082 %  
> 9 Aries 0.081 %  
> 10 Sagittarius 0.073 %  
> 11 Leo 0.071 %  
> 12 Aquarius 0.063 %
> 
> Hmm; add all those together and you get 1%.  
> What sign are the other 99% of the population?  
> Ophiuchus?

I don’t know where you got that table, but in mathematics probability is often given as a reference to 1, not to 100; it’s given as percentiles for psychological reasons (most people have a better grasp of what “25%” means than of what “.25 (when the total is 1)” means). Take out the percentile signs and it’s correct.

As for the original question, it varies by location.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-common-astrological-signs/214103/22 "2013-06-12T11:17:16Z")

</div>

All of that data seemed to be unsourced – the NYTimes one quoted a Harvard researcher, but I couldn’t find her data anywhere – so I made my own list using [2003 data from the National Center for Health Statistics](http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/vsus/vsus_1980_2003.htm) (Table 1-16):

[Signs - 2003](https://skydrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=9867ED46F373003E!669&app=Excel&authkey=!AMQdTYfWzxdajuA)

In summary (United States births in 2003):  
Leo 9.21%  
Gemini 8.83%  
Cancer 8.71%  
Virgo 8.66%  
Libra 8.55%  
Scorpio 8.44%  
Aries 8.19%  
Taurus 8.18%  
Aquarius 8.01%  
Pisces 7.88%  
Capricorn 7.70%  
Sagittarius 7.65%

If somebody figures out a better way to take the data from the PDF tables (ugh), let me know and I’ll add them to this spreadsheet.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-common-astrological-signs/214103.md?page=1)