Research · Big three
The most common big threes
If your chart feels like everyone else's, it might be. The 25 combinations that fill the most birth minutes, and the two patterns behind them.
Photo: National Park Service, Glacier National Park
At a glance
The most common big three is Leo Sun, Taurus Moon, Scorpio rising: about 1 in 1,161 US births born 2000 to 2014, at 40°N.
- Number one
- Leo / Taurus / Scorpio1 in 1,161
- Number two
- Leo / Pisces / Scorpio1 in 1,180
- Top 25 together
- 2.08%of all births
- Even split would be
- 1.45%25 of 1,728
Check your big threeYour exact odds, out of 1,728.
The lead
Late summer, slow horizon
Try this today
- If you are a summer baby with a slow-rising sign, find your row in the table below.
- Not there? Use the checker on the main page to see your rank out of 1,728.
Look down the top 25 and two things jump out.
The Suns are almost all Leo, Cancer and Virgo: 10 Leo, 8 Cancer, 6 Virgo. That is the US birth calendar talking. July through September is the busiest stretch of the year for births, and the Sun also spends the most days in those signs, because Earth moves slowest around its July aphelion.
The rising signs are the other half. 25 of the 25 have Leo, Virgo, Libra or Scorpio rising, and Scorpio alone appears 10 times. At 40° north those signs take the longest to cross the eastern horizon, so they collect the most birth minutes every single day.
The Moon is the wildcard. It moves through every sign each month, so the Moon in the top combinations is mostly a story about which Moon signs happened to line up with summer Suns during these particular 15 years.
The sky behind it
Method. We did not survey anyone and we did not roll random numbers. We stepped through every calendar day from 2000-01-01 to 2014-12-31 (5,479 days) and every four-minute slot of local clock time within each day, 1,972,440 birth moments in all. Each moment is weighted by the number of babies the US Social Security Administration recorded for that date (62.2 million births), divided evenly across the day. For each moment the Sun and Moon come from NASA JPL's DE442 ephemeris (tropical zodiac, geocentric) and the rising sign from the local sidereal time at the stated latitude.
What it assumes. Births spread evenly through the 24 hours. Real hospitals have a daytime bulge (scheduled C-sections and inductions), which nudges rising-sign pairings a little; our earlier rising-sign study found it moves no single rising sign by more than 0.03 points. The calendar is the US one for every latitude, so the non-US rows are "the same births, born further north or south", not a census of those countries.
The list
The top 25, with odds
Number one is Leo Sun, Taurus Moon, Scorpio rising, about 1 in 1,161. Then Leo Sun, Pisces Moon, Scorpio rising at 1 in 1,180, and Virgo Sun, Cancer Moon, Virgo rising at 1 in 1,185.
Notice how close they are. The whole top 25 sits within a narrow band, and together the 25 cover 2.08% of births, against 1.45% if all 1,728 were equal. The bottom of the table is where the drama is: number one is 3.0 times as common as the rarest combination.
So "most common" here means a gentle crowd, not a stampede. The median big three is about 1 in 1,633.
The sky behind it
| # | Sun / Moon / rising | Odds | Share of births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leo / Taurus / Scorpio | 1 in 1,161 | 0.0861% |
| 2 | Leo / Pisces / Scorpio | 1 in 1,180 | 0.0848% |
| 3 | Virgo / Cancer / Virgo | 1 in 1,185 | 0.0844% |
| 4 | Cancer / Aries / Scorpio | 1 in 1,186 | 0.0843% |
| 5 | Cancer / Taurus / Leo | 1 in 1,191 | 0.0839% |
| 6 | Virgo / Cancer / Libra | 1 in 1,192 | 0.0839% |
| 7 | Cancer / Sagittarius / Scorpio | 1 in 1,195 | 0.0837% |
| 8 | Cancer / Gemini / Scorpio | 1 in 1,196 | 0.0836% |
| 9 | Leo / Libra / Scorpio | 1 in 1,196 | 0.0836% |
| 10 | Leo / Taurus / Virgo | 1 in 1,197 | 0.0835% |
| 11 | Leo / Aries / Leo | 1 in 1,199 | 0.0834% |
| 12 | Libra / Leo / Scorpio | 1 in 1,202 | 0.0832% |
| 13 | Leo / Libra / Leo | 1 in 1,202 | 0.0832% |
| 14 | Virgo / Cancer / Scorpio | 1 in 1,203 | 0.0831% |
| 15 | Virgo / Sagittarius / Scorpio | 1 in 1,203 | 0.0831% |
| 16 | Cancer / Aries / Libra | 1 in 1,206 | 0.0829% |
| 17 | Leo / Cancer / Virgo | 1 in 1,206 | 0.0829% |
| 18 | Leo / Aries / Virgo | 1 in 1,206 | 0.0829% |
| 19 | Leo / Gemini / Leo | 1 in 1,208 | 0.0828% |
| 20 | Cancer / Pisces / Leo | 1 in 1,209 | 0.0827% |
| 21 | Virgo / Sagittarius / Libra | 1 in 1,209 | 0.0827% |
| 22 | Virgo / Pisces / Scorpio | 1 in 1,210 | 0.0826% |
| 23 | Leo / Taurus / Libra | 1 in 1,210 | 0.0826% |
| 24 | Cancer / Sagittarius / Libra | 1 in 1,212 | 0.0825% |
| 25 | Cancer / Sagittarius / Leo | 1 in 1,214 | 0.0824% |
Common is not basic
Common is a statistic, not a personality
"Most common big three" gets read as "basic", and that is a little unfair. One in 1,161 still means you could walk through a mid-sized town and not meet your twin.
Astrology also never claimed the big three is the whole story. Two people with Leo / Taurus / Scorpio can have Venus and Mars in completely different places, different house emphases and different aspects. The big three is the headline, not the article.
If anything, a common combination has an upside: more people have written about it, more friends get your references, and the memes are already made.
Try it
Higher or lower: which big three is more common?
Two combinations, one guess. Tap the one you think more people share at 40°N, then reveal the odds. It is harder than it looks.
Which big three is more common at 40°N?
Hint: Capricorn Suns and Aries or Pisces rising drag a combo down. Leo to Virgo Suns and Leo to Scorpio rising push it up.
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More to read
Shorter reads. Each opens in place.
Play
Why the guessing game is hard
Most pairs of big threes are within a few hundred births per million of each other. Your best clues: a Capricorn Sun or Aries/Pisces rising pulls a combo down; a Leo-to-Virgo Sun or Leo-to-Scorpio rising pulls it up.
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Sun signs
Most common zodiac sign in the US
On its own, the most common Sun sign in the US is Leo (8.96% of births, 2000 to 2014) and the rarest is Capricorn (7.63%).
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Quick answers
What is the most common big three?
Leo Sun, Taurus Moon, Scorpio rising, about 1 in 1,161 US births from 2000 to 2014, computed at 40° north latitude.
Is my big three common?
If your Sun is Cancer, Leo or Virgo and your rising is Leo through Scorpio, very likely. Use the checker on the main rarest big three page for your exact rank of 1,728.
What is the most common Sun and rising combination?
Summer Suns with slow-rising signs. At 40°N, Leo / Taurus / Scorpio leads overall, and Scorpio rising appears 10 times in the top 25.
Is a common big three bad?
No. Frequency is a fact about birth statistics. A chart is read as a whole, and a common big three says nothing about how interesting someone is.
What is the most common zodiac sign in the US?
Leo, at 8.96% of 62.2 million US births from 2000 to 2014. Capricorn is the rarest at 7.63%.
How was this counted?
Every 4-minute slot of every day from 2000 to 2014, weighted by real US births per day, with Sun, Moon and rising computed from NASA JPL's DE442 ephemeris at 40°N.
