We have collected survey data on favorite and least favorite colors since 2011, with more than 6,300 responses from more than 150 countries. Take a look at the results, sorted by age and gender. And be sure to add your answers!
That’s the question we asked … and 6,300+ people from 150+ countries have answered! Since November 2011, survey respondents have weighed in on their favorite and least favorite colors. They also have been telling us where they are from, their age, and their gender. If you haven’t already, take a minute to answer just 5 questions and add your responses to the study:
The results: We love blue and green…and hate brown and yellow!
Early on, favorites emerged in the survey responses, and they have held mostly true as more responses have rolled in. One thing for sure, if you’re designing something for the under-70 crowd, you can’t go wrong with blue or green. If you’re creating something for seniors, using red could be a great choice. And, unless there’s a strong reason for using brown or yellow, you might want to avoid them as your primary colors. Let’s take a look at the results:
Favorite and least favorite colors by age
Favorite and least favorite colors by gender
Demographic data of survey respondents
Some frequently asked questions:
Did you know you forgot pink?
Yes, and people wanted to vote for it for most AND least favorite. If we created a new survey, it would definitely be there. (Plus, isn’t it just technically a shade of red?)
Don’t people like different colors for different things?
Of course. We actually talk about just that in “Selecting colors for design projects.” But, judging by the number of people who were willing to pick just one, we bet that most people do have one they generally like more than others. For this survey and your answer, think of what color you would select for your personal toothbrush (or something else that only you regularly see) if you saw all these colors offered in the store. And, which color you would never pick.
Don’t you think it would be better to be more specific on where people are from, for example, eastern U.S., southern U.S., etc.?
No way! In fact, we wish we had just made it a question of which continent you were from so we had more data from each place. There were so few from each country other than the U.S., Canada, Australia, and United Kingdom that we’re not even going to analyze the differences based on culture. If we get more answers from other countries, we’ll share that information.
Why do older people like red so much?
As our eyes age, we sometimes lose the ability to distinguish between blues and yellows. The color that stands out the most is red, so that may be why we are more drawn to it as we age. Or maybe it was just a cool color when they were growing up in the first half of the 20th century!
Can I see the raw data?
You bet! Just contact us and we’ll send you the data so you can sort and analyze to your heart’s content.
This poll isn’t very scientific, is it?
I’m a designer, not a scientist! But it still is interesting to see the differences emerge in the responses we’ve received so far.
Can I still vote?
YES! In fact, we’d love to have you post a link to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/colorprefs so everyone you know can participate. The more responses we get from around the world, the more we can learn about color preferences. Take the one-minute poll, and after you vote, you can see how your answers compare with worldwide favorite colors.
The written responses on sites where we posted the link have been all across the board:
- Decisive: “Green!” and “Always red” and “REDDDDDDD!!!!!”
- Descriptive: “Warm Red or Fiery Red!” and “Skyblue”
- Specific: “100C 100Y 10M 30K” and “I think I would have to go for British racing green (Pantone 5535)” and “Blue, RGB: 102.204.255, HEX: 66ccff” and “Blue: not a power blue and not a real dark blue, more like somewhere around PMS 285 blue” and a personal favorite: “1 micrometer (wave length) or maybe 10 micrometers”
- Silly: “Plaid” and “Iridescent” and “They still don’t let you pick ‘clear.’ Oh well….”
- Angry: “This is not a scientific study” and “I like different colors for different things. This poll is junk.”
- Entertaining: “Blue … not into that purple crap” and “Blue NO RED Auuuuuuuuuuuggghhhh…” (Monty Python “3 Questions”)
Click to download the full infographic (PDF 210K)
Green! In my opinion, the color shows life, eternity and redemption. And also it is a very positive color as well as negative. Showing both life and death. It is also my favorite and shows my personality in it’s definition. Calm, humble, kind and generous. Because it is the color of nature it shows harmony and balance.
My favorite is yellow that’s my happy place but after that is purple.
Why don’t more people like yellow? Yellow is awesome!
I know. I’m bummed about purple!
Yellow is one of my LEAST favorite colors…along with blue and pink! Lol!
Come on orange!! Lol! …actually Red-orange is my favorite color…and technically my favorite color is: “Caracas Red”…its a paint color for a car. Lol!
I like the wavelength answer, but there’s a problem with it. Both of the wavelenghts are outside of the visible spectrum. 1 micrometer is 1000 nanometers and the wavelengths of visible light are from 380 nanometers to 740 nanometers. So this guy’s favorite color is infrared (basically heat radiation) 😛
Hot color! 😉
Seashell Pink!!!!!!!! and Lilac Purle too! you have got to have Lilac Purple along with Seashell Pink!!!!!!!!!! oh and Auqa Blue or Green, you just have to have Auqa Blue or Green too! and Silvery Gray too, you have to have Silvery Gray too! and Light Lemon Yellow, don’t forget about light Lemon Yellow too!
Pink, pink … strange that this colour is missing. In the 80s and 90s you would have taken pink and would have left out purple. So maybe the palette also tells us something about about those who have made it up. As designers we know that there are not three, but six basic colours. C M Y R G B . When you give in on K (Black) being a colour, then the logical consequense would be to include white + grey (fashion hit in the 80s, remember?) as well. And then there are still orange, purple, brown which are all colours which are likely to come up when you ask people to name just six colours I guess. Conclusion: The palette is poorly defined. Nevertheless, I’ll
Hi, Albert! Yes, we didn’t put pink in the survey, nor did we put shades of any other colors except grey. Orange, purple, brown, black, white, and grey are all in there, though not very popular! Take a look at the “Preferences by Gender” chart and you’ll see all 10 colors that were included. But, no pink!
Although royal cobalt blue is my favorite, you should add pink to your survry.I knowmany that go crazy for pink.
And, by crazy, you might mean crazy with love or crazy with hate!