Enneagram type percentages: types 1 to 9 in two Korean student studies

The Enneagram sorts personality into nine types numbered 1 to 9 and groups them into three centers: the gut center of types 8, 9 and 1, the heart center of types 2, 3 and 4, and the head center of types 5, 6 and 7. After taking the test, it is natural to wonder whether your type is a common one.

Two Korean student studies whose full tables are openly available both found Type 9 the most common, at close to 40% (Lee and Chung, 2008; Kim and Chung, 2009). Both, though, surveyed students from only a few schools, so they are hard to read as shares for all Koreans.

This guide sets out the two studies’ figures, the shares by center, where other studies disagree, what to keep in mind when reading the numbers, and how they differ from a result on the mind.io Enneagram test.

The first study surveyed 340 first- and second-year students at one academic high school in Gyeonggi-do in January 2008 and analyzed 322 responses (67.4% boys). Type 9 was the most common, with 125 students (38.8%), followed by Type 7 at 14.3% and Type 2 and Type 6 at 9.3% each, while Type 8 (4.3%) and Type 3 (4.7%) were the least common. Counting wings, Type 9 with a 1 wing (9w1) was the most common at 31.1% (Lee and Chung, 2008).

The second study drew a convenience sample of 315 college students at four universities in Seoul and Cheonan over a month from October 2007 (78.1% women). Here too Type 9 was the most common, with 118 students (37.5%), followed by Type 7 at 12.1%, Type 6 at 11.1% and Type 4 at 9.8%, while Type 3 (3.5%) and Type 8 (3.8%) were the least common (Kim and Chung, 2009).

Both studies used the Korean Enneagram Personality Type test developed by Youn (81 items on a five-point scale). The second study states that the test has nine items per type and that the highest-scoring type was counted as each person’s basic type. The table below shows the nine shares from both studies side by side.

Grouped by center, the gut center of types 8, 9 and 1 was the largest in both studies (50.0% of the high school students, 48.6% of the college students), followed by the head center of types 5, 6 and 7 (29.5%, 29.8%) and the heart center of types 2, 3 and 4 (20.5%, 21.3%). The gut center’s size comes mostly from Type 9; types 8 and 1, in the same center, were each under 10%. The high school study’s table by center (161 gut, 95 head) is one student off the sum of its type counts (160 and 96); the shares here are as printed.

In the theory, the gut center acts on instinct and habit, the heart center values feelings and emotions, and the head center analyzes a situation and thinks before moving. The second study compared how students express anger across these centers: gut-center students scored significantly higher on letting anger out (mean 25.39) than heart-center (23.78) and head-center students (24.04). Split by gender, the difference was significant only among the women. Across all students, holding anger in or calming it down did not differ significantly by center (Kim and Chung, 2009).

The first study cites Cho (2006) as finding the head center (38.9%) and Type 4 (20.0%) most common, but Cho’s own abstract, on 1,061 high school and college students, lists the gut, heart and head centers in that order and Types 9, 4 and 6 as the most common. The cited figures may describe a subgroup, but we could not check the full paper. The second study also notes that the shares of the three centers have not matched across studies, depending on how and whom they sampled.

The authors of the first study suggest the difference may relate to sample size, while noting that Type 9 was common in both their study and Cho’s. So it is fair to say that Type 9 often comes out common in Korean student samples, but the exact shares are better seen as depending on the sample and the test.

Neither study is a representative sample. The high school study covers one school with 67.4% boys, and the college study is a convenience sample with 78.1% women. Ages also cluster in the late teens and early twenties, so the figures do not carry over directly to adults in general or to other regions.

When only the highest of the nine scores sets a person’s basic type, even people whose scores are close are counted under one type. How far a Type 9 stands from the other types’ scores does not show in the shares. When reading your own result, too, the gap to your second and third types and your possible wings say more than the top type alone. We have not yet found the distribution in a representative sample of Korean adults whose source and sample can be checked.

The mind.io Enneagram test is a short test of its own with 5 questions per type, 45 in all, and shows your highest-scoring type and possible wings. Its questions differ from the 81-item test in the studies above, so the shares cannot be compared directly.

The Enneagram type ranking anonymously counts only the highest-scoring type in the results of people who tap the join button on their own result page. All that is sent is the test, the result and the page language; no answers or scores. The numbers count entries, not people, and with nine types the ranking stays hidden until 45 entries are in.

Q. What is the most common Enneagram type? A. In the two Korean student studies in this guide, Type 9 was the most common, at 38.8% (high school) and 37.5% (college). Both studies surveyed students at only a few schools, though, and the shares differ between studies, so they are better seen as depending on the sample and the test.

Q. Which type is the rarest? A. In both studies, Type 3 and Type 8 were each under 5%, the least common (high school: Type 3 4.7%, Type 8 4.3%; college: Type 3 3.5%, Type 8 3.8%). Coming out rare does not make a type special or problematic.

Q. Why is Type 9 so common? A. Neither study tested why. So it is hard to conclude that Koreans lean toward Type 9 by nature; it needs checking with other samples and tests.

Q. Why does the mind.io ranking differ? A. The questions (45 versus 81) and the people differ. The studies counted students gathered at schools; the mind.io ranking counts the results of people who chose to join.

References: Lee & Chung (2008), A Study on Enneagram Personality Types, Ego-Identity, Self-Efficacy and Interpersonal Relations among Adolescents in High School (in Korean), Bumo-Janyeo Geongang Hakhoeji 11(1), 37-48, https://koreascience.kr/article/JAKO200818741149476.pdf; Kim & Chung (2009), Anger Expression Style by the Enneagram Personality Types of College Students (in Korean), Korean Journal of Community Living Science 20(4), 539-547, https://koreascience.kr/article/JAKO200906950836563.pdf.