Looks and money land at the bottom of the list

A recent global study from YouGov Omnibus asked men and women around the world about their priorities in a romantic partner. Both in the US and abroad, personality was the top priority of men and women in considering a mate. Respondents were asked to rank a list of options upon which they migh that choose a romantic partner by order of importance, including: personality, intelligence, appearance, sense of humor, similar interests, and having or making money.

As far as US respondents’ preferences in a romantic partner, “They have a personality I like,” ranked first among men and women with 41% and 38% respectively choosing it first. While intelligence and sense of humor occupied the middle range, having or making money was less of a concern for men, with 68% ranking this last.

Slightly more women chose sense of humor second than men, with 27% ranking it just behind personality. For women too, sense of humor and intelligence occupied the middle rank, while looks and having/making a decent amount of money were lower priorities in choosing a romantic partner.

Across the many the countries polled, personality was a top choice among men and women. However, good looks were the number one basis for choosing a romantic partner among men from Vietnam and Saudi Arabia.

For full results, read here.

All of the surveys were conducted online, and in many of the countries the internet penetration is low to the point where the sample can only be said to be representative to the online population. The countries where the online population is lower than 60% of the total are Egypt, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Vietnam.