45 Impressive INTP Statistics

The INTP personality is a bit of an enigma. They’re incredibly intelligent people and although they rank as being introverted, they’re actually more like extroverts than introverts. This bit of craziness takes a toll on the INTP as well, because they are more likely to abuse a vice more than any other personality group.

About 3.5% of the world’s population registers as an INTP.

INTP

It can be difficult to have a conversation with an INTP. After all, if you’re watching a movie that’s based on science fiction, they’d rather discuss the actual science of what they are seeing and discuss in detail how it all violates the quantum mechanics that are known right now. Above anything else, the INTP wants to have the absolute truth. They achieve this through logic exercises and they love flexing this intellectual power as often as possible.

• People of Caucasian descent are more likely to be an INTP than any other racial demographic at 8.76%.
• The INTP is the personality type that registers the highest IQ scores of any other personality demographic.
• INTPs are the most likely personality group to enjoy smoking, even though they know it will probably kill them in the future.
• Out of all the introverted personality groups, the INTP is the most likely to get married.
• People with an INTP personality are more likely to enjoy being paired with an idealist more than any other group.
• 8 out of 10 people who are INTP tend to prefer working alone and doing so for a long period of time.
• For people who are dissatisfied with their work or job, the INTP is the most likely to have the lowest overall levels of satisfaction.
• Men are 3x more likely than women to be INTP.
• The INTP is one of the four most common personality groups amongst musicians.
• INTP is the rule breaker and can’t stand to be limited by bureaucracy of any kind.
• Only about 1% of the total population is an INTP, making it one of the rarest personality groups there are.

The INTP is always pushing to know more, be more, and do more. They have a thirst for knowledge that is second to none. They enjoy having a fantasy world to observe, like on a television show, but only if it is completely accurate. Even if the entire point of the show is to make fun of other shows, there must be a logic to the humor and facts that are involved, otherwise the INTP is going to leave in disgust. Make sure you’ve got your arguments lined up before going up against an INTP too – they’ve already studied the facts and know the logical pattern of information. They probably already know what you’re going to say and why, so maybe just bring some popcorn over and a documentary if you’ve got some free time.

Who Is The Modern INTP?

• INTPs make up 4.8% of the Singapore population, which is the highest percentage of a country in the world that has been surveyed.
• INTPs also make up 3.82% of the Australian population, nearly 4x the global average.
• 3.54% of the American population are INTPs, bringing the US into third place.
• In comparison, just 2.7% of the population in New Zealand tests as an INTP, but that’s still nearly 3x the global rate.
• Women who are INTP are the complete opposite of the culturally preferred type of woman [ESFJ].
• 60%-65% of women report a preference for feeling types over thinking, which is 2x the amount of men with this preference, which accounts for the discrepancy in women being INTP when compared to men.

Here’s a good question to ask: how come people in cultures that are based on information and are fairly remote when compared to most other countries have the highest rates of INTP within the population? Even the United States, which essentially has two primary neighbors, fits into this profile. Part of the reason might be the natural isolation that exists from a geographic standpoint. For the US in particular, with so many wide open spaces, there is a lot of room to roam. That’s the perfect opportunity for this personality to develop. It might also have to do with the fact that information must be processed logically in order for it to be understood. With access to so much information today, the logical processes in the mind begin early and then continue developing into adulthood.

What Makes The INTP Unique?

• Over 73% of INTPs in a recent survey stated that they enjoy structure that was clear and precise, but that was the lowest rank of all the personality groups.
• An INTP is more likely to want to own and run a small business.
• 61% of INTPs said that they wouldn’t mind working in a team environment, which was alos the lowest rank of all the personality groups.
• INTPs are also the most likely to find learning environments to be highly stressful.
• Many INTPs don’t mind questioning a teacher in front of the class and arguing over conclusions because of the logical constructs that are involved.
• INTPs are the most likely to be referred for alcoholic treatment and substance abuse counseling after graduating from high school.
• The most common college major for an INTP is based in science and engineering.
• In a recent study of foreign language classes, there was a 2.34 greater amount of INTPs enrolled than would be expected.

If you want to win over the heart of an INTP, don’t settle for cinnamon rolls. Look for a logical, methodical debate about something that they care about instead. Science and engineering are a good start. Imagine having a conversation with Spock from Star Trek and you’ve got a good sense of what life is like with an INTP. There’s a bit of sarcastic wit in there, but an overriding sense of logic that comes out before anything else. When a guess needs to be made, it causes the INTP physical discomfort because there is no logic in a guess. That, however, is also what makes the INTP truly unique. There are few chances that are taken unless it makes logical sense to take a chance. That’s why every risk that an INTP takes is completely calculated.

Is The INTP The Best Parent Ever?

• Research has shown that INTP parents are the most patient out of any personality group.
• The INTP parent is most likely to treat children as a small adult, which means serious consideration is given to their thoughts and ideas.
• INTP parents tend to be more stern than other personality groups and they let natural consequences rule the day.
• Children are actually a high source of stress for INTP parents, which is impressive considered how highly these parents rate for patience.
• INTP parents are the least likely to try to live vicariously through their children as they get older.

Imagine having your consequences as a child being more about how your choice was illogical instead of having lectures. That’s the world of a child who has INTP parents. It’s an almost cold, harsh confrontation that occurs. The parent is disappointed that their off-spring could be so illogical. The child, on the other hand, becomes deprived of an environment because that’s a “logical” outcome to poor decision. At least the INTP parent is pretty patient, despite the high levels of stress. Spaghetti night and Star Wars, however, might not be the best of combinations.

Do INTP’s Make Good Leaders?

• Because the INTP prefers to disregard controls and rules that don’t make sense, they tend to have a hands off approach to leadership.
• The INTP is the least likely of any personality group to micromanage their team.
• The INTP is the most likely to just let an unruly team member keep breaking the rules at the expense of the rest of the team.
• INTPs see leadership as a means of not having as many controls placed on them as compared to others in lower level positions.
• When strategy components are involved in leadership, the INTP is the best kind of personality that can be placed into that kind of position.

Considering chess is one of the favorite games for the INTP, it stands to reason that strategy and a lack of control would be the two main reasons why they would want to get into a leadership role. If you do play a game with an INTP, you’d better be prepared for something like Scrabble or Dungeons and Dragons. Anything that involves solving some sort of puzzle is a good time. Having an INTP as a leader is also a good thing because it means you’re going to be left alone for a long, long time. You can basically do whatever you want and get away with it unless you are so out of control that you could threaten the INTPs leadership position. Then you’re going to be removed faster that you can blink!

Where Could The INTP Work To Improve?

• The INTP ranked 16th out of 16 types on total coping resources that are available to them at any given time.
• They are the 2nd highest to be agnostic in their beliefs in a higher spiritual power.
• They are the most frequent among college students referred for drug and alcohol violations.
• INTPs are 1 of 3 highest types that like work environments with international opportunities.
• If there’s one thing that the INTP really doesn’t care about, it is their outward existence.
• The INTP is one of the most likely personality groups to not care about their personal hygiene or fitting in with societal norms.
• INTPs tend to pick one style of clothing and then wear it for every occasion.

Albert Einstein once said it was easy to wear plaid with strips when you began to realize that the universe is expanding into a nothing that is actually something. There are more important things to the INTP than making sure that the people around them are visually and emotionally pleased by what they see. It’s the job that is important to the INTP and nothing else. Sometimes that job means solving a puzzle while playing World of Warcraft. At other times, it might mean getting into work early because there are a million lines of programming code that need to be reworked. There is one thing for certain: if you walk by a home with a particular smell to it, an INTP who works from home likely lives there.

Why Do INTP’s Struggle With Drugs?

• The INTP takes nothing for granted. Just because someone says that something is bad doesn’t mean that it really is, which means they are the most likely to experiment with items.
• The INTP is right in the Middle Class of average earnings and because they logically spend money, they have extra on hand to spend on alcohol and drugs.
• Because drugs tend to bring satisfaction on at least a temporary basis and the INTP finds satisfaction in breaking rules, the combination of the two becomes very dangerous.

In many ways, life itself is an addiction to the INTP. There is a quest for absolute truth in everything that happens. This is why they are one of the most likely personality groups to question religion and spirituality, but they aren’t willing to discount it either. Unless something is absolute, then it can be virtually anything. To this extent, the INTP loves to explore and discover and that’s why drugs are such a trap for this personality group. Truth can be very different, even between two different hits on that joint being passed around. Some might say the addiction is to their quest in life and not any of the drugs.