The question of what percentage of our world is made up of introverts and what percentage of extraverts always arouses interest. Understanding this ratio helps us appreciate the sheer variety of human personalities.
To begin with, let us synchronise our watches and agree on a shared understanding of who introverts and extraverts actually are
Now we can come back to the question
A historical review of the research
Studies carried out at different times give different estimates of the ratio of introverts to extraverts. For example, the study by Gray and Wheelwright (1946) showed that out of two hundred respondents 54% were introverts and 46% extraverts. In another study, carried out by Myers and Briggs (1962) with 8,561 participants, 55% turned out to be extraverts and 45% introverts.
Present-day views
Otto Kroeger and Janet Thuesen argue in their book "Type Talk" that there are three times fewer introverts than extraverts. Susan Cain in her book "Quiet" points to research according to which between 33 and 50% of the population of the USA are introverts. In particular professional groups — among lawyers, for instance — the percentage of introverts can be considerably higher.
Here is what the authors write about the ratio of introverts to extraverts in the USA:
Kroeger & Thuesen, 1989There are three times fewer introverts. As a result they have to develop additional skills that will help them cope with the enormous pressure from a society that requires them to "fit in" with everybody else.
On our own site, though, the percentage of introverts and extraverts appears to be quite different. See for yourself — answer the question below:
If Eysenck is to be believed, extraverts and introverts are evenly represented in the population, at 16% each. Most people (about 68 per cent of the population) fall in the middle range of the extraversion/introversion continuum, an area called ambiversion (Bartol, 2004). To be clear, Eysenck's "middle continuum" is everything more or less balanced.
Cultural and personal differences
So where do such differences in the estimates come from? There are several reasons for this:
- different definitions of introversion and extraversion, and above all the mixing of them up with the active and the passive life position. Carl Gustav Jung himself, the founder of personality typologies, warned about this mistake 100 years ago. You can read about these mistakes in detail in the articles "Life positions of a person" and "A personality type test. Is there any point?"
- the cultural preferences of the authors of the research. The therapist M. Laney, in her book "The Introvert Advantage", points out again and again how unfairly one temperament has been elevated by marketing in the USA: "Extraverts get all the hype" (Laney 2002).
- the researcher's own temperament. If the researcher is an extravert, they will attract extraverts, and vice versa. But that is already a broader and subtler matter, deserving an article of its own.
Conclusion and further reading
My own personal conclusion is that the ratio of introverts to extraverts in the world is roughly equal. If you are interested in reading more, take a look at the following literature:
- Gordon, L. A. (2016, January 1). Most lawyers are introverted, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. ABA Journal.
- Kroeger, O., & Thuesen, J. M. (1989). Type Talk: The 16 Personality Types That Determine How We Live, Love, and Work. Dell
- Laney, M. O. (2003). The Introvert Advantage: How to Thrive in an Extrovert World (E. Bogdanova, Trans.). Moscow: Eksmo. [Russian edition]
- Bartol, C. (2004). Criminal Behavior: A Psychosocial Approach. St Petersburg: PRIME-EUROZNAK. [Russian edition]
