Creativity, curiosity, and openness to new ideas are not evenly distributed around the world. Some cultures actively celebrate artistic expression, intellectual exploration, and the pursuit of novelty. Others prize tradition, consistency, and familiarity. The difference between them is not random and it is measurable through the Big Five personality trait of Openness to Experience.
Openness is the trait most closely associated with imagination, aesthetic sensitivity, intellectual curiosity, and a genuine appetite for new experiences. People high in Openness tend to be drawn to arts, ideas, and complexity. Countries that score highest on this trait tend to have cultures where creative and intellectual life is deeply valued, where questioning the status quo is encouraged, and where the new and unfamiliar is met with interest rather than suspicion.
In the Big Five model, Openness to Experience measures the degree to which a person tends toward intellectual curiosity, aesthetic appreciation, creative thinking, and comfort with novelty. People high in Openness often gravitate toward the arts, philosophical thinking, unique experiences, and unconventional ideas. People lower in Openness tend to prefer the familiar, routine, and the established.
At the national level, high average Openness tends to correlate with vibrant cultural as well as artistic output, a tradition of philosophical or intellectual discourse, and social norms that value individual expression and the freedom to think differently. It is also worth noting that Openness and intelligence are related but distinct. Openness measures the tendency or desire to engage with ideas and experiences, not necessarily the capacity to do so.
Scores are measured on a scale of 0–100, where higher scores indicate greater average Openness within a country's population.
| Rank | Country | Openness Score | Score (Visual) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | France | 67 | |
| 2 | Finland | 65 | |
| 3 | Sweden | 64 | |
| 4 | Norway | 63 | |
| 5 | Netherlands | 61 | |
| 6 | Germany | 60 | |
| 7 | Romania | 59 | |
| 8 | Ireland | 57 | |
| 9 | Mexico | 54 | |
| 10 | United Kingdom | 53 |
Romania has now appeared highly across three of our five personality trait rankings: #2 for Extraversion, #1 for emotional stability (low Neuroticism), and now #7 for Openness. Very few countries score in the top ten across multiple dimensions simultaneously. The combination of socially energetic, emotionally stable, and intellectually curious is very unique.Romania is building a case as one of the most compelling personality matches in our entire database, and it remains one of Europe's most underrated destinations.
France's position at the top of the global Openness rankings requires little explanation for anyone who has engaged with French culture. France has one of the world's richest and most sustained traditions of artistic, philosophical, and intellectual life. From the Enlightenment to Impressionism, or from existentialism to the French New Wave, France has repeatedly positioned itself at the frontier of how humans think, create, and express themselves. The French educational system places high value on philosophical and critical thinking from an early age. French culture actively celebrates aesthetic judgment in food, wine, fashion, architecture, and the arts in ways that reflect a population deeply attuned to ideas and beauty.
Finland (#2), Sweden (#3), and Norway (#4) might not be the first countries that come to mind when thinking about creativity and open-mindedness. But the data tells a consistent story. Scandinavian educational systems are among the world's most progressive that emphasize critical thinking, creativity, and individual exploration over rote learning. These countries also have strong traditions of design, architecture, music, film, and literature that punch far above their population size. Finland produced Nokia and is renowned for its design culture. Sweden has an extraordinary per-capita output in music, gaming, and technology. Norway consistently invests in the arts at national scale. The high Openness scores reflect cultures that genuinely value and invest in creative and intellectual life.
Finland's #2 ranking for Openness sits alongside its #1 ranking for introversion, those two facts together tell an understandable story. Finnish culture prizes deep thinking, individual intellectual exploration, and a genuine engagement with ideas over small talk and social performance. Finland's education system is regularly ranked among the world's best, with a philosophy centered on curiosity, creativity, and learning for its own sake rather than for tests and grades. Meanwhile Finnish design culture prizes minimalism, function, and beauty. These values reflect a population that thinks carefully and originally about how things should work and look. The combination of introversion and high Openness is one of the most intellectually productive personality profiles that exists.
Sweden is now appearing on its fourth consecutive trait ranking in our series, having also ranked in the top 10 for introversion, emotional stability, and agreeableness. Its high Openness score adds another dimension to a portrait of a society that is reserved, calm, cooperative, and intellectually engaged. Sweden's cultural output per capita is extraordinary: ABBA, IKEA, Spotify, Ingmar Bergman, Stieg Larsson, H&M, and Minecraft all emerged from a country of ten million people. That creative productivity is not an accident, it reflects a culture that consistently values original thinking and creative expression.
Norway, like Sweden, continues its remarkable run across our rankings, also appearing in the top five for both emotional stability and agreeableness. Norways high Openness score reflects a culture deeply invested in art, nature, and intellectual life. Norway is one of the world's largest per-capita investors in cultural institutions: museums, libraries, galleries, theaters, and arts funding. In addition, Edvard Munch's "The Scream" is one of the most recognizable artworks in human history. Norwegian literature, architecture, and design all reflect a population that thinks about the world with genuine originality and curiosity.
Similar to the Scandinavian nations, The Netherlands has a cultural legacy of extraordinary creative and intellectual achievement relative to its size. Rembrandt, Vermeer, Van Gogh, Mondrian, Spinoza, Erasmus — the Dutch have contributed significantly to the world's artistic and philosophical heritage. Modern Dutch design and architecture are globally recognized for their originality and boldness. The Netherlands also consistently ranks among the world's most liberal and open societies, which both reflects and reinforces high Openness in its population. It also appeared in our top three for emotional stability, making it one of the more unique creative and calm national profiles.
Germany's high Openness score reflects one of the world's richest intellectual and cultural traditions. Goethe, Schiller, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Einstein, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms — the list of German contributions to art, philosophy, science, as well as music is extraordinary and ongoing. The Bauhaus movement, which revolutionized design in the 20th century, originated in Germany. Modern Germany also invests heavily in education, research, as well as the arts, and maintains a culture that values precision alongside creativity. That combination produces some of the world's most innovative engineering, design, and intellectual output. In addition, Germany also appeared in our top ten for emotional stability.
Romania's third appearance across our series cements its status as one of the most compelling high ranking multi-dimensional personality matches in our database. Its high Openness score reflects a rich cultural heritage that is often overlooked in Western cultural discourse. Romanian contributions to sculpture (Constantin Brâncuși), philosophy (Emil Cioran), theatre (Eugène Ionesco, a founder of the Theatre of the Absurd), and literature are important. Romania's post-1989 creative renaissance has produced vibrant contemporary art, film, and music scenes that reflect a population genuinely engaged with ideas and artistic expression. Combined with its top scores for social energy and emotional stability, Romania presents a very rich personality match for people who are intellectually curious, outgoing, and emotionally calm.
Ireland makes another appearance in this series, having also topped the Agreeableness rankings. This confirms a portrait of a country that is warm, open, and intellectually adventurous. Ireland's literary tradition is one of the most extraordinary in the English speaking world: Swift, Wilde, Yeats, Shaw, Beckett, Joyce have four combined Nobel Prizes in Literature from a nation of five million people. Irish culture has a deep tradition of storytelling, wit, wordplay, and a kind of irreverent intellectual curiosity that refuses to take convention too seriously. For people who are both highly Agreeable and highly Open, Ireland presents one of the most well-rounded cultural matches in our dataset.
Mexico's third appearance across our series, previously ranked #1 for Extraversion and #7 for emotional stability, adds an intellectually curious dimension to their unique profile. Mexico's creative legacy is vast: Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Octavio Paz, Carlos Fuentes, Luis Buñuel's Mexican films, and a tradition of muralism that used art as a vehicle for social and political ideas. Traditional Mexican cuisine has been recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This is surely a reflection of a culture that brings genuine creativity and artistry to every aspect of daily life. The combination of Extraversion, emotional stability, and Openness makes Mexico another one of the few countries to rank highly across three distinct personality dimensions.
The United Kingdom makes its second appearance in our series, also ranking #10 for Agreeableness. British history reflects a culture with one of the world's deepest and most varied creative traditions. Shakespeare, Darwin, Newton, Dickens, the Beatles, David Bowie, the British film industry, the BBC, and an extraordinary tradition of scientific innovation all reflect a culture that takes ideas seriously and produces original thinkers in large numbers. British culture also has a tradition of irreverence, eccentricity, and a certain proud refusal to take things entirely at face value, all qualities associated with high Openness. This tradition can be found in across British comedy, literature, and public discourse.
Sweden has now appeared in the top 10 of four out of five trait rankings in our series: introversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, and openness. Like Romania, this creates an unusually complete and high ranking personality profile for a single country: reserved, calm, cooperative, and intellectually curious. For someone whose own personality is similarly multi-dimensional, Sweden's data profile could be a good match with relatively strong scores across nearly every dimension we have measured.
Europe dominates completely. 9 of 10 countries on this list are European, a striking concentration that likely reflects both the European tradition of philosophical and artistic discourse as well as the particular way Openness has been measured in cross-cultural research. As our database expands, it will be interesting to see how other regions compare.
Introversion and Openness often go together. Finland (#1 introverts, #2 here), Sweden (#2 introverts, #3 here), and the UK (#10 introverts, #10 here) all appear on both lists. This reflects a documented finding in personality research: introverted people are often drawn to ideas, art, and complex inner experiences which are the very qualities Openness measures.
Romania is the series' biggest surprise. Three appearances across five trait rankings make Romania one of the most multi-dimensionally compelling countries in our series to date. Its combination of social energy, emotional calm, and intellectual curiosity is notable and worth taking seriously as a destination for people who score highly across personality traits.
Mexico and Ireland also stand out as repeat performers. Both countries now appear on three trait lists. By combining warmth, social energy, and openness in ways that make them compelling matches for people high in Agreeableness, Extraversion, and Openness.
The Openness scores used in this article come from the wheresmypersonality database, which draws on Big Five personality research and cross-cultural psychology studies. Scores represent average population tendencies within each country and should not be interpreted as applying to every individual. There is room for variability. These rankings are best understood as broad cultural tendencies rather than absolute national characteristics. The scores presented are approximations.
Openness is just one of five traits that shape where you belong. Take our free quiz and find which countries match your full personality profile across all five dimensions at once.
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