Human Design Type Distribution, Actually Computed
Across 995,040 computed charts, Generators are 37.13 % of the possible birth moments, Manifesting Generators 31.61 %, Projectors 21.76 %, Manifestors 8.59 % and Reflectors 0.92 %. These are computed base rates, not a survey: we ran the chart algorithm over every 37th minute from 1950 to 2020 and counted the results.
The figures repeated everywhere in Human Design, roughly 37/33/20/9/1, turn out to be close to right. Two other things are not: the twelve profiles are nowhere near evenly spread, and the profile most often called "the rarest" is not the rarest.
Why this number did not already exist
Every article about Human Design types cites the same percentages, and none of them cites a source. The numbers come from practitioner chart logs and software databases, passed along until they hardened into fact. Our own guide to the rarest type says exactly that, and calls them folklore with decimals.
They are checkable, though. Type, profile and authority are not opinions: they are derived from where the planets sat at a moment in time, by a fixed procedure. So instead of repeating the folklore we ran the procedure 995,040 times.
How this was computed
We took every 37th minute of UTC from 1950-01-01 to 2020-01-01, which is 995,040 distinct birth moments, and ran each one through the same derivation that produces a chart on this site: planetary longitudes from the Swiss Ephemeris for the moment of birth and for the design moment 88 degrees of solar arc earlier, gates and lines from those longitudes, channels from the gate pairs, centers from the channels, then type, authority and profile.
Location does not enter into it. Type, profile and authority depend on planetary longitudes, which are the same everywhere on Earth at a given instant. Only the local clock reading changes with place, and sampling evenly in UTC covers every clock reading equally. The interval is a prime number of minutes on purpose, so the sample never lands on the same clock minute every day.
What this is not: a census of living people. Births are not spread evenly across the day or the year. Scheduled inductions and caesareans cluster on weekday mornings, and birth rates move with the seasons. So the real distribution among people alive today will differ from these figures by some amount we cannot measure from here. This is the base rate of the system itself, which is the honest thing to publish and still the closest thing to a real number the field has.
The five types
| Type | Share | Charts |
|---|---|---|
| Generator | 37.13 % | 369,433 |
| Manifesting Generator | 31.61 % | 314,480 |
| Projector | 21.76 % | 216,527 |
| Manifestor | 8.59 % | 85,492 |
| Reflector | 0.92 % | 9,108 |
Sacral beings, meaning Generators and Manifesting Generators together, are 68.73 % of all charts. Reflectors really are rare, at 0.92 %, which is close to the 1% everyone quotes. If you want what each type actually means, start with the five types explained.
The twelve profiles are not evenly spread
This is the result we did not expect. The twelve profiles fall into two clean groups: six at about 14.45 % each and six at about 2.22 % each, a ratio of roughly 6.5 to one.
| Profile | Share |
|---|---|
| 5/1 | 14.45 % |
| 3/5 | 14.45 % |
| 1/3 | 14.45 % |
| 2/4 | 14.44 % |
| 4/6 | 14.44 % |
| 6/2 | 14.44 % |
| 4/1 | 2.23 % |
| 5/2 | 2.22 % |
| 2/5 | 2.22 % |
| 6/3 | 2.22 % |
| 1/4 | 2.22 % |
| 3/6 | 2.22 % |
The common six are 1/3, 2/4, 3/5, 4/6, 5/1, 6/2. The rare six are 1/4, 2/5, 3/6, 4/1, 5/2, 6/3. Within each group the differences are tiny: the six rare profiles span 0.004 of a percentage point between them, which at this sample size means they are equally rare rather than ranked.
That matters for a claim you will see everywhere. The 4/1 is widely described as the rarest of the twelve, because it is the only juxtaposition profile. It is genuinely in the rare group, but it is the most common member of that group, not the least. No single profile is the rarest one. If you want the mechanics of how the two numbers are produced, they are in the twelve profiles explained.
Authorities, which nobody seems to have counted
| Authority | Share |
|---|---|
| Emotional | 51.49 % |
| Sacral | 32.91 % |
| Splenic | 9.09 % |
| Self-Projected | 2.31 % |
| Mental (outer authority) | 2.10 % |
| Ego | 1.18 % |
| Lunar | 0.92 % |
Emotional authority is the single most common way of deciding, at 51.49 % of charts. If you have it, roughly half the people you meet share it. Lunar authority tracks Reflectors exactly, because it belongs only to them.
The cross-tabulation is where it gets useful. Projectors, for instance, are 43.74 % Emotional and 34.00 % Splenic, so the advice to "wait for the invitation" lands very differently depending on which one you are. What your authority asks of you day to day is covered in the guide to inner authority.
Check it yourself
The method is stated above in full and the derivation is the same one that runs when you calculate your own chart. Anyone with an ephemeris library and the standard gate wheel can reproduce these counts. If you do and get something different, we would rather hear about it than not.
Download the raw counts (CSV)Free to reuse with attribution. 37 rows: every type, profile and authority, plus authority within each type.
The fastest way to make sense of this is to look at your own chart. Get your free Human Design chart →
Common questions
What percentage of people are each Human Design type?
Across 995,040 computed charts: Generator 37.13 %, Manifesting Generator 31.61 %, Projector 21.76 %, Manifestor 8.59 %, Reflector 0.92 %. These are base rates of the algorithm over evenly sampled birth moments, not a census of living people.
Is the 4/1 really the rarest Human Design profile?
No. The 4/1 is in the rare group of six, but at 2.23 % it is the most common member of that group, not the least. All six rare profiles fall within 0.004 of a percentage point of each other, so none of them is meaningfully the rarest.
What is the most common inner authority?
Emotional authority, at 51.49 % of charts, which is more than the other six combined. Sacral is next at 32.91 %. Lunar authority is 0.92 % and belongs only to Reflectors.
Curious which of these you are? Your type, profile and authority are computed from your exact birth date, time and place, never guessed from a description.