This chapter examines the distribution of social and emotional skills in the adult population. It explores how these skills vary according to adults’ socio-demographic characteristics, like age, gender, parental education, and immigrant background across countries and economies participating in the 2023 Survey of Adult Skills. In addition, the chapter investigates differences in social and emotional skills among adults with varying levels of educational attainment. These differences may contribute to unequal opportunities for success in both work and life. Understanding them is essential to providing appropriate targeted opportunities that foster the development of such skills and to promoting more inclusive learning and working environments that value diversity.
Skills that Matter for Success and Well‑being in Adulthood
Abstract
Social and emotional skills assessed in the 2023 Survey of Adult Skills – agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, extraversion and openness to experience – vary across the adult population. Some differences, such as gender differences in agreeableness, are observed consistently across all participating countries and economies, suggesting that similar underlying processes may operate across diverse cultural settings. Other differences, such as those in emotional stability between younger and older adults, vary in both size and direction across countries, indicating that historical context and societal norms also shape the expression of these skills. The largest and most consistent differences are observed between adults with different levels of educational attainment, reflecting both the importance of formal learning environments in shaping social and emotional development and the role of social and emotional skills in accessing and succeeding in higher education.
Key findings include:
Younger adults tend to report higher levels of extraversion and openness, while older adults tend to report higher levels of conscientiousness and agreeableness. Age-related differences in emotional stability vary across countries.
Reported levels of agreeableness, conscientiousness and emotional stability tend to increase with age. Openness tends to decline consistently with age across all countries and economies. Extraversion follows a bell-shaped trajectory: average levels increase slightly until around age 40 and decline more sharply thereafter.
Women report higher levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness, but lower emotional stability than men in nearly all countries. Gender differences in openness and extraversion are smaller and more variable.
Gender differences in emotional stability are more pronounced among younger adults and tend to narrow with age in many countries, suggesting that maturation and accumulated life experiences may contribute to reducing these differences over time.
Adults with highly educated parents tend to score higher in openness and extraversion, while adults with lower-educated parents score higher in conscientiousness in the majority of countries. Differences in agreeableness and emotional stability are small and less consistent across countries.
Parental education is more strongly associated with openness and extraversion among older adults than among younger ones. This suggests that socio-economic background may have had a greater influence on social and emotional development in earlier generations.
In many countries, foreign-born adults report higher levels of openness, agreeableness or conscientiousness than native-born adults. Differences in emotional stability and extraversion by immigrant background are smaller and less consistent across the countries.
Adults with tertiary education tend to report higher levels of emotional stability, extraversion, and openness than those with below upper secondary education. In many countries, tertiary-educated adults report somewhat higher levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness.
The 2023 Survey of Adult Skills provides a snapshot of the distribution of five key social and emotional skills in the adult population – agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, extraversion and openness to experience. These skills support individuals in managing everyday challenges, building relationships, and adapting to changing social and economic environments. They play a crucial role in shaping individuals’ life outcomes, from education and employment to health and well-being (Rammstedt, Lechner and Danner, 2024[1]). However, social and emotional skills are not evenly distributed across the population. Their development is shaped by a range of factors over the life course, including family background, major life events, cultural norms, educational experiences, and opportunities for learning and practice in work settings.
Given the economic and social benefits of social and emotional skills, it is crucial to understand how they vary across socio-demographic groups in the adult population. Differences in social and emotional skills may reflect unequal access to opportunities for developing these skills throughout life – whether in the family, in education, in the workplace or in broader society. This may indicate a need for more equitable policies that target the development of social and emotional skills of specific groups. At the same time, variation in these skills may also stem from broader socio-cultural factors, differing social roles, or physiological changes associated with ageing. Acknowledging this diversity is key to designing policies and practices that are more inclusive – adapting teaching methods, workplace design or training approaches to better support different groups.
This chapter presents evidence from the 2023 Survey of Adult Skills on how social and emotional skills are distributed across different socio-demographic groups in the adult population. It examines how these skills vary by age, gender, parental education, immigrant background and educational attainment across countries and economies participating in the survey. In addition, the chapter explores how social and emotional skills differ among adults with varying levels of education. Understanding these differences is essential to providing appropriate targeted opportunities that foster the development of such skills and to promoting more inclusive learning and working environments that value diversity.
Social and emotional skills change with age. This change is driven by biological factors, such as brain development and physiological changes associated with ageing, as well as various environmental factors, including education, work, family life and broader socio-cultural conditions. The interplay between these biological and environmental factors is complex and dynamic, shaping both the levels of social and emotional skills and their developmental trajectories over the life span.
Studies drawing on longitudinal survey data have documented systematic age-related differences in social and emotional skills assessed with the Big Five model. Notably, conscientiousness, agreeableness and emotional stability tend to increase from early adulthood into middle age, while openness to experience increases, on average, in adolescence and declines in old age. Extraversion shows a more complex pattern, with its facet social dominance increasing, and its facet social vitality (i.e. energy level) decreasing, on average, with age (Roberts, Walton and Viechtbauer, 2006[2]; Specht, Egloff and Schmukle, 2011[3]). These patterns are broadly consistent across countries and cultural contexts, suggesting that social and emotional development is shaped by common life-course processes, such as changes in roles, responsibilities, and cognitive and emotional functioning.
However, disentangling the exact causes of these observed age differences presents significant methodological challenges. For cross-sectional studies – such as the Survey of Adult Skills, which has so far collected information on social and emotional skills only in its second cycle – an additional challenge lies in separating so-called aging from cohort effects. This means that when comparing individuals of different ages at a single point in time, observed differences may reflect both true developmental changes associated with ageing and generational differences in upbringing, education systems, economic conditions or cultural norms. For instance, older cohorts may have been exposed to different social expectations regarding emotional regulation or interpersonal behaviour, which could shape their average social and emotional skills profiles in ways unrelated to biological ageing.
Accounting for observable differences between adults of different ages, notably for differences in educational attainment and parental education, can isolate the impact of generational differences to some extent. Although this does not provide a full approximation of the underlying age effect, the age-related differences in the Big Five domains derived from the 2023 Survey of Adult Skills offer a valuable snapshot of how social and emotional skills are distributed across the adult lifespan in different national contexts. The following analyses present both absolute differences in social and emotional skills between age groups and differences after accounting for the impact of other characteristics.
Older adults tend to be more conscientious and agreeable and less extraverted and open to experience than younger adults
Figure 4.1 presents the average standardised differences in Big Five domains between younger (aged 25‑34) and older adults (aged 55-65). Since Big Five scores are standardised at the country level, differences are expressed in units of the country’s standard deviation (see Chapter 1). For example, a difference of 0.5 indicates that 25-34 year-olds score, on average, half a standard deviation higher than 55-65 year-olds in a Big Five domain within their country. Conversely, a difference of -0.5 means that older adults have an average score that is half a standard deviation higher than that of younger adults.
Overall, older adults score higher on the Big Five domains conscientiousness and agreeableness, while younger adults have higher average levels of extraversion and openness to experience. These patterns are broadly consistent across the countries and economies. However, there are several exceptions. Age-related differences in agreeableness are not significant in eleven countries and economies. In Estonia and Poland, younger and older adults do not significantly differ in conscientiousness, while in Lithuania, 25-34 year-olds demonstrate, on average, higher conscientiousness levels than 55-65 year-olds. Younger and older adults do not significantly differ, on average, in extraversion in Canada, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal and Sweden. In openness, no significant age differences are observed in Canada, Chile, Denmark, France, New Zealand and the Slovak Republic.
The comparison of emotional stability between younger and older adults reveals a mixed pattern across countries. In twelve countries and economies, older adults report significantly higher levels of emotional stability, consistent with the idea that individuals become better at regulating their emotions with age. In a few countries, namely Croatia, Estonia, France, Lithuania, Poland and the Slovak Republic, younger adults exhibit higher average reported levels of emotional stability than older adults. In the remaining countries, the differences are not significant. These cross-country differences may reflect a range of influences, including cultural norms around emotional expression, or historical events that shaped the emotional development of particular generations.
The adjusted differences in social and emotional skills – those observed after accounting for factors such as parental education, immigrant background and educational attainment – follow a similar pattern to the unadjusted differences. In other words, the observed differences in socio-demographic characteristics between younger and older adults do not account for the variation of social and emotional skills across these age groups. An exception is observed in the domain on openness to experience. After controlling for other characteristics, the age difference in openness disappears or reverses in many countries. Additional analyses suggest that lower levels of formal education among older adults explain much of the initial difference.
Adjusted and unadjusted standardised difference in the Big Five domains between 25-34 and 55-65 year-olds
Note: Unadjusted differences are the differences between the two averages for each contrast category. Adjusted differences are obtained from a regression model controlling for gender, immigrant background, parental education, whether one lives with a partner, whether one has children, employment status (employed, unemployed, out of the labour force) and years of education attained. Darker colours denote differences that are statistically significant at the 5% level.
Countries and economies are ranked in ascending order of the unadjusted difference in each Big Five domain between younger and older adults.
Source: OECD (2024[4]), Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) database, http://www.oecd.org/skills/piaac/publicdataandanalysis/ (accessed on 11 August 2025).
Unadjusted standardised trend scores in the Big Five domains by age
Note: Adults aged 16-65. Estimates are obtained from separate regression models of each Big Five domain on age, the squared of the age and its cube.
Source: Source OECD (2024[4]), Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) database, http://www.oecd.org/skills/piaac/publicdataandanalysis/ (accessed on 11 August 2025).
In addition, Figure 4.2 shows the relationships between age and the Big Five domains. The observed patterns closely resemble those obtained from longitudinal studies (Specht, Egloff and Schmukle, 2011[3]; Roberts, Walton and Viechtbauer, 2006[2]). On average, across the participating countries and economies, reported levels of agreeableness, conscientiousness and emotional stability increase with age. However, the increase in emotional stability is less pronounced and reflects divergent patterns across countries. Openness tends to decline consistently with age across all countries and economies. Extraversion follows a bell-shaped trajectory: average levels increase slightly until around age 40 and decline more sharply thereafter.
Gender differences in the Big Five domains have been extensively documented. Overall, previous studies show that women tend to score higher than men, on average, in agreeableness and conscientiousness, whereas differences in other dimensions are less pronounced and consistent (Murphy, Fisher and Robie, 2021[5]). At the facet level, women have been shown to score, on average, lower in assertiveness and openness to ideas, and higher in anxiety, compassion, warmth and openness to feelings (Costa, Terracciano and McCrae, 2001[6]; Weisberg, DeYoung and Hirsh, 2011[7]). These gender differences are observed from early childhood through adulthood (Else-Quest et al., 2006[8]; Feingold, 1994[9]). They also persist across a wide range of measures and data sources (78 Members of the Personality Profiles of Cultures Project, 2005[10]). Moreover, gender differences in the Big Five domains have been consistently observed across different countries and languages (Schmitt et al., 2008[11]).
Women tend to be more agreeable and conscientious than men
The results of the 2023 Survey of Adult Skills generally confirm the trends observed in previous studies (Figure 4.3). Across all participating countries and economies, women report, on average, higher levels of agreeableness and lower levels of emotional stability than men. In all countries and economies, except in Czechia, Korea, Latvia and the Slovak Republic, women score, on average, higher in conscientiousness than men. Differences in conscientiousness are less pronounced than those in agreeableness and emotional stability.
Results regarding extraversion and openness are less consistent across countries. Women score somewhat lower in extroversion in Italy, Poland, Singapore and the Slovak Republic, and somewhat higher in Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Lithuania, Portugal and Spain. In the openness domain, women score, on average, higher than men in twelve countries, and lower only in England (United Kingdom). Differences adjusted for socio-demographic characteristics are generally the same as the unadjusted ones, because women and men do not differ substantially regarding these characteristics.
Gender differences in emotional stability narrow down with age
Age, or more precisely the birth cohort to which individuals belong, may play a key role in shaping gender differences in social and emotional skills. Norms and expectations around gender roles have evolved substantially over the past few decades, influencing how men and women are encouraged to develop and express these skills. As a result, younger and older adults may exhibit distinct patterns of gender differences in the Big Five domains, reflecting their unique socialisation experiences and life trajectories.
Figure 4.4 shows that, in most countries and economies, gender differences in emotional stability are largest among 16-24 year-olds and tend to narrow with age, being smallest among 45-65 year-olds. Exceptions from this pattern are Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Poland and the Slovak Republic, where gender differences in emotional stability are similar among the age groups.
Adjusted and unadjusted standardised difference in the Big Five domains between men and women
Note: Adults aged 16-65. Unadjusted differences are the differences between the two averages for each contrast category. Adjusted differences are obtained from a regression model controlling for age, immigrant background, parental education, whether one lives with a partner, whether one has children, employment status (employed, unemployed, out of the labour force) and years of education attained. Darker colours denote differences that are statistically significant at the 5% level.
Countries and economies are ranked in ascending order of the unadjusted difference in each Big Five domain between men and women.
Source: OECD (2024[4]), Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) database, http://www.oecd.org/skills/piaac/publicdataandanalysis/ (accessed on 11 August 2025).
Unadjusted standardised difference in the Big Five domains between men and women, by age
Note: Adults aged 16-65. Unadjusted differences are the differences between the two averages for each contrast category. Darker colours denote differences that are statistically significant at the 5% level.
Countries and economies are ranked in ascending order of the difference in each Big Five domain between men and women aged 45-65.
Source: OECD (2024[4]), Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) database, http://www.oecd.org/skills/piaac/publicdataandanalysis/ (accessed on 11 August 2025).
Analyses at the level of the Big Five facets reveal that, compared to men, women report, on average, higher levels of compassion, respectfulness and trust (facets of agreeableness), organisation, productiveness and responsibility (facets of conscientiousness), and higher levels of anxiety, depression and emotional volatility (facets of emotional stability) (Figure 4.5). Gender differences in the sub-dimensions of extraversion go in opposite directions. While men score slightly higher, on average, in assertiveness and energy level than women, they report lower average levels of sociability. In the domain of openness, women report, on average, higher levels of aesthetic sensitivity, while there are only small gender differences with regard to intellectual curiosity and creative imagination.
Adjusted and unadjusted standardised difference in the Big Five facets between men and women
Note: Adults aged 16-65; aggregated results across the OECD countries that used the BFI-2-S measure. Unadjusted differences are the differences between the two averages for each contrast category. Adjusted differences are obtained from a regression model controlling for age, immigrant background, parental education, whether one lives with a partner, whether one has children, employment status (employed, unemployed, out of the labour force) and years of education attained. (r) denotes reverse-coded sub-domains, where a positive score corresponds to a low tendency for anxiety, depression or emotional volatility (and thus higher emotional stability). Darker colours denote differences that are statistically significant at the 5% level.
Source: OECD (2024[4]), Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) database, http://www.oecd.org/skills/piaac/publicdataandanalysis/ (accessed on 11 August 2025).
Countries exhibit similar patterns of gender differences in the Big Five facets with some notable exceptions (Annex A). With regard to assertiveness, men and women do not differ significantly in Germany, Estonia, Portugal and Spain, while women have higher average scores than men in Chile. Gender differences in energy level are not significant in Croatia, Czechia, Estonia and Portugal, while in Germany women report higher scores than men on this facet. With regard to intellectual curiosity and creative imagination, gender differences in opposite directions are observed across some countries. In Germany and Korea, men report higher average levels of intellectual curiosity than women, while the reverse is true in Croatia, Estonia and Italy. For creative imagination, men score higher on average in Czechia, Germany, Korea, New Zealand, and Norway, whereas women score higher in Croatia and Estonia.
In contrast, gender differences in agreeableness, conscientiousness and extraversion are largely similar across these age groups across countries (Figure 4.4). In the domain of openness, gender differences are more strongly pronounced among the youngest age group in Czechia, the Flemish Region (Belgium), Latvia, the Netherlands, Singapore, the Slovak Republic, Spain and Switzerland, with younger women scoring higher than younger men relative to other age groups.
Socio-economic background has been shown to influence a wide range of life outcomes across both childhood and adulthood. Children from more advantaged backgrounds tend to perform better in reading, mathematics and science, access and complete higher levels of education, enjoy better health and report higher levels of well-being (OECD, 2023[12]). Similarly, adults from privileged backgrounds tend to have higher literacy and numeracy proficiency, higher educational attainment, better physical and mental health, as well as greater success in the labour market (OECD, 2024[13]). These disparities are often attributed to the fact that parents with high socio-economic status are typically able to offer their children better material resources, greater support and more enriching environments, as well social and cultural capital that shape children’s development from an early age (Boudon, 1974[14]; Breen and Goldthorpe, 1997[15]; Erikson et al., 2005[16]; Lucas, 2001[17]).
OECD studies have shown that the impacts of socio-economic background go beyond cognitive and educational outcomes to influence young people’s social and emotional skills. For example, PISA results indicate that 15-year-old students’ performance in creative thinking is related to their socio-economic status (OECD, 2024[18]). OECD’s Survey of Social and Emotional Skills (SSES) shows that students with higher economic, social and cultural status report higher levels across all assessed skills – including curiosity, tolerance, creativity, responsibility, self-control, persistence, achievement motivation, sociability, assertiveness, energy, empathy, trust, stress resistance, optimism and emotional control – compared to their counterparts from less advantaged backgrounds (OECD, 2024[19]).
Adults from less educated families report, on average, lower openness to experience
The results of the 2023 Survey of Adults Skills confirm that parental educational attainment influences social and emotional skills well into adulthood (Figure 4.6). The analysis compares two groups of adults: those who have at least one parent who has attained tertiary education (adults with highly educated parents) with those whose parents have attained upper secondary education at most (adults with lower-educated parents). The results indicate that adults with highly educated parents demonstrate, on average, higher levels of openness to experience across all participating countries and economies. Similar differences are observed for extraversion in all countries and economies, except Canada, Chile, Czechia, Italy, New Zealand and Portugal, where no significant differences are observed. In 12 countries and economies, emotional stability is also positively related to parental education.
Different patterns emerge for the Big Five domains conscientiousness and agreeableness. In most countries and economies, adults with lower-educated parents report, on average, higher levels of conscientiousness than those with highly educated parents. Exceptions are Chile, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Israel, Poland and the Slovak Republic, where the difference is not significant, and Lithuania, where adults from advantaged backgrounds report higher average levels of conscientiousness. In Canada, England (United Kingdom), France, Ireland, Korea and Norway, adults with lower-educated parents score, on average, somewhat higher in agreeableness then adults with highly educated parents. In the remaining countries and economies, there is no significant difference between the groups, while in Austria and the Flemish Region (Belgium), the reversed pattern is observed.
Adjusted and unadjusted standardised difference in the Big Five domains between adults with at least one tertiary-educated parent and adults with parents with at most an upper secondary education
Note: Adults aged 16-65. Unadjusted differences are the differences between the two averages for each contrast category. Adjusted differences are obtained from a regression model controlling for gender, age, immigrant background, whether one lives with a partner, whether one has children, employment status (employed, unemployed, out of the labour force) and years of education attained. Darker colours denote differences that are statistically significant at the 5% level. Countries and economies are ranked in ascending order of the difference in each Big Five domain between adults with highly educated and lower-educated parents.
Source: OECD (2024), Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) database, http://www.oecd.org/skills/piaac/publicdataandanalysis/ (accessed on 11 August 2025).
These results are largely in line with previous findings. A study by Sutin and colleagues (2017[20]) found that adults with highly educated parents have higher levels of openness, extraversion and emotional stability than adults with less educated parents. Parental educational attainment was unrelated to conscientiousness. These findings were replicated in a subsample of adopted individuals, which suggests that environmental mechanisms are as important as shared genetics.
The relationship between parental education and social and emotional development may be mediated by many factors, including access to quality education, early childhood experiences and parental practices. Accounting for differences in respondents’ educational attainment and other socio-demographic characteristics substantially reduces the differences in social and emotional skills by parental education, suggesting that these factors are important channels of the observed disparities. However, even after adjusting for these factors, differences in openness remain significant across all participating countries and economies (except Portugal), and differences in extraversion persist in the majority of countries. These findings indicate that additional mechanisms contribute to the relationship between socio-economic background and adults’ social and emotional skills.
Differences in social and emotional skills by parental education tend to be wider among older adults
Assessing socio-economic background with parental education requires separate analyses by age group, since there are generational differences in how common it was to have highly educated parents and the advantages linked to it. Detailed analyses by age are presented in Figure 4.7. The figure shows differences in the Big Five domains between adults with highly and lower-educated parents among 16-24, 25-44 and 45-65 year-olds.
In the domains of openness and extraversion, socio-economic differences tend to be more pronounced among 45-65 year-olds. In the domain of openness, all countries register significant socio-economic differences in this age group, while these differences are smaller or not significant among 16-24 year-olds in most of the countries and economies. Exceptions are Canada, England (United Kingdom), Germany, Hungary, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania and the Slovak Republic, where socio-economic differences in openness among younger adults are similar to or wider than those among older adults. In the domain of extraversion, differences by parental education in the older age group are observed in most countries and economies, while only Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Norway and the Slovak Republic register such differences among younger adults.
The domain of emotional stability presents a more mixed pattern. One groups of countries, including Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, New Zealand and Norway, exhibits relatively larger differences in emotional stability by parental education among younger adults. Other countries such as Chile, Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands, Singapore and Spain, show somewhat larger differences by parental education among those aged 45-65.
In the domains of agreeableness and conscientiousness, differences between adults with highly and lower-educated parents are generally consistent across age groups. Exceptions in the domain of agreeableness are Sweden, where 16-24 year-olds with lower-educated parents score higher, on average, than their peers with highly educated parents, as well as Croatia and Denmark, where adults with highly educated parents report higher scores among the youngest age group. In the domain of conscientiousness, Germany, Latvia and Poland show relatively larger socio-economic differences among younger adults, with those from lower-educated backgrounds scoring higher, on average, than those from more advantaged families.
Unadjusted standardised differences in the Big Five domains between adults with at least one tertiary-educated parent and adults with parents with at most an upper secondary education, by age
Note: Adults aged 16-65. Unadjusted differences are the differences between the two averages for each contrast category. Darker colours denote differences that are statistically significant at the 5% level.
Countries and economies are ranked in ascending order of the difference in each Big Five domain between 45-65 year-olds with highly educated and lower-educated parents.
Source: OECD (2024[4]), Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) database, http://www.oecd.org/skills/piaac/publicdataandanalysis/ (accessed on 11 August 2025).
Further analyses at the level of facets reveal significant socio-economic differences in most of the Big Five facets (Figure 4.8). On average across the OECD countries with available data, adults with highly educated parents report higher levels across the three facets of openness compared to their peers from less educated backgrounds. The largest differences are observed in aesthetic sensitivity and intellectual curiosity. The differences in the three facets remain significant, after adjusting for other factors, including respondents’ educational attainment.
Adjusted and unadjusted standardised differences in the Big Five facets between adults with at least one tertiary-educated parent and adults with parents with at most an upper secondary education
Note: Adults aged 16-65; aggregated results across the OECD countries that used the BFI-2-S measure. Unadjusted differences are the differences between the two averages for each contrast category. Adjusted differences are obtained from a regression model controlling for gender, age, immigrant background, whether one lives with a partner, whether one has children, employment status (employed, unemployed, out of the labour force) and years of education attained. (r) denotes reverse-coded sub-domains, where a positive score corresponds to a low tendency for anxiety, depression or emotional volatility (and thus higher emotional stability). Darker colours denote differences that are statistically significant at the 5% level.
Source: OECD (2024[4]), Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) database, http://www.oecd.org/skills/piaac/publicdataandanalysis/ (accessed on 11 August 2025).
In the domain of extraversion, a larger socio-economic difference is observed in assertiveness, while there is no significant difference in sociability between adults with higher and lower parental education. In the domain of conscientiousness, those with lower-educated parents score, on average, higher in organisation, productiveness and responsibility, while in the domain of emotional stability, this group scores lower, on average, than their peers from more educated families. For agreeableness, a significant difference between the two groups is observed only for trust, with adults from disadvantaged backgrounds scoring somewhat higher, on average, on this facet.
Some countries deviate from the aggregate pattern (Annex A). In Spain, adults with highly educated parents score, on average, higher in trust than their counterparts from less advantaged backgrounds. In Chile, Croatia, Italy and the Slovak Republic, the socio-economic differences in the facets of conscientiousness are not statistically significant. In New Zealand and Portugal, the difference in assertiveness is not significant, while, in Chile, adults with lower-educated parents score, on average, higher in energy level. In sociability, adults with lower-educated parents have higher average scores in Czechia, while adults with highly educated parents score higher in Croatia, Estonia and Norway.
There are several reasons to expect differences in the Big Five domains between adults with and without an immigrant background. Migration is often a highly selective process, shaped by factors such as motivation, risk tolerance, resilience and the capacity to adapt to new environments – traits that may be closely linked to the Big Five dimensions. Indeed, empirical studies show that openness and extraversion are positively associated with the propensity to migrate both across and within countries (Crown, Gheasi and Faggian, 2020[21]; Fouarge, Özer and Seegers, 2019[22]). Openness also positively relates to the willingness to move to culturally distant countries (Fouarge, Özer and Seegers, 2019[22]).
Moreover, the experience of migration itself can influence the development and expression of social and emotional skills over time. The nature of migration – whether voluntary or forced, potential exposure to stress and uncertainty, as well as the process of integrating into a new culture all play a role in shaping social and emotional outcomes for migrants and their descendants. Perhaps the most important factor influencing migrants’ social and emotional skills is their cultural background. The values, norms and social roles predominant in the host country, alongside with the socio-economic conditions under which migrants were socialised, impact the development of their social and emotional skills from early age.
Migrants tend to be more agreeable, conscientious and open to new experience than non-migrants
The results of the 2023 Survey of Adults Skills reveal systematic differences in the Big Five domains between native-born and foreign-born adults in many countries and economies (Figure 4.9). These differences are more strongly pronounced in the domains of agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness, with foreign-born adults having higher average scores in most countries and economies, even after accounting for other characteristics. An exception is Estonia, where foreign-born adults score, on average, lower than native-born adults in agreeableness and openness. In Italy and Latvia, foreign-born adults also report lower average levels of openness, compared to the native-born population; however, these differences are not statistically significant after controlling for other characteristics.
Differences in emotional stability and extraversion by immigrant background are smaller and less consistent across countries and economies. In Canada, Chile, Czechia, England (United Kingdom) and France, foreign-born adults report, on average, somewhat higher levels of emotional stability than native-born adults. Conversely, in Austria, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland, foreign-born adults report lower levels of emotional stability. The remaining countries and economies show no significant differences in this domain. In the domain of extraversion, foreign-born adults report higher average levels in Chile, England (United Kingdom) and Portugal, and lower average scores in Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Israel, Italy, Korea and the Netherlands, compared to the native-born population.
Adjusted and unadjusted standardised differences in the Big Five domains between native-born adults with native-born parents and foreign-born adults with foreign-born parents
Note: Adults aged 16-65. Unadjusted differences are the differences between the two averages for each contrast category. Adjusted differences are obtained from a regression model controlling for gender, age, parental education, whether one lives with a partner, whether one has children, employment status (employed, unemployed, out of the labour force) and years of education attained. Poland is excluded due to small numbers of foreign-born adults. Darker colours denote differences that are statistically significant at the 5% level. Countries and economies are ranked in ascending order of the unadjusted difference in each Big Five domain between native-born adults with native-born parents and foreign-born adults with foreign-born parents.
Source: OECD (2024[4]), Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) database, http://www.oecd.org/skills/piaac/publicdataandanalysis/ (accessed on 11 August 2025).
Figure 4.10 presents differences in the Big Five domains between native-born adults with native-born parents and second-generation migrants – those born in the country to foreign-born parents. These differences are observed in fewer countries and tend to be less consistent across countries. In the domains of agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and extraversion, most countries and economies do not exhibit significant differences between the two groups. In each of these domains, a few countries (between three and six) register significantly higher average scores for second-generation immigrants and a few countries (between three and four) register significantly higher scores for native-born adults with native-born parents. A more consistent pattern is observed for openness – in nine of the 23 countries and economies with available data, second-generation migrants score significantly higher, on average. Only in Estonia, Latvia and Singapore do native-born adults with native-born parents report significantly higher average levels of openness.
This section examines differences in social and emotional skills across levels of educational attainment. Such differences are expected, as people with certain social and emotional skills may be more likely to pursue and succeed in higher education. Skills related to conscientiousness and open-mindedness are known to play a role in academic success and are likely to influence educational decisions over time. Individuals with these skills tend to perform better academically and are more inclined to value education as a pathway to personal and professional development (OECD, 2024[19]). As a result, higher levels of educational attainment may reflect the social and emotional characteristics of those who remain and succeed within the education system.
At the same time, educational environments may contribute directly to the development of social and emotional skills. Through structured tasks, long-term goal-setting, collaboration and exposure to new ideas, formal education can help strengthen skills such as conscientiousness, openness to experience and emotional stability. Moreover, individuals with higher levels of education often have access to broader social networks, more varied professional opportunities and greater autonomy in their work – conditions that may further reinforce the development and expression of certain social and emotional skills.
Highly educated adults tend to score higher in all Big Five domains compared to lower educated adults
Findings from the 2023 Survey of Adults Skills indicate that tertiary-educated adults tend to score higher in emotional stability, extraversion and openness to experience compared to adults with below upper secondary education (Figure 4.11). Exceptions are Norway and Sweden, where differences in emotional stability are not significant. Similarly, in Czechia, Portugal and Sweden, no significant differences are observed in extraversion.
In the domains of agreeableness and conscientiousness, differences between high- and low-educated adults are relatively smaller and observed in fewer countries. In 16 countries and economies, tertiary-educated adults report significantly higher levels of agreeableness, while in 19 countries, this groups scores higher in conscientiousness. In Austria, adults with below upper secondary education score somewhat higher in conscientiousness than those with tertiary education.
In some countries and economies, differences in social and emotional skills by educational attainment are smaller or not significant after adjusting for factors such as age. This suggests that, in these contexts, the observed differences are partly related to differences in the socio-demographic composition of education groups.
Adjusted and unadjusted standardised differences in the Big Five domains between native-born adults with native-born parents and native-born adults with foreign-born parents
Note: Adults aged 16-65. Unadjusted differences are the differences between the two averages for each contrast category. Adjusted differences are obtained from a regression model controlling for gender, age, parental education, whether one lives with a partner, whether one has children, employment status (employed, unemployed, out of the labour force) and years of education attained. Chile, Finland, Hungary, Korea, Poland and the Slovak Republic are excluded due to small numbers of native-born adults with foreign-born parents. Darker colours denote differences that are statistically significant at the 5% level.
Countries and economies are ranked in ascending order of the unadjusted difference in each Big Five domain between native-born adults with native-born parents and native-born adults with foreign-born parents.
Source: OECD (2024[4]), Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) database, http://www.oecd.org/skills/piaac/publicdataandanalysis/ (accessed on 11 August 2025).
Adjusted and unadjusted standardised differences in the Big Five domains between adults with tertiary education and adults with below upper secondary education
Note: Adults aged 16-65. Unadjusted differences are the differences between the two averages for each contrast category. Adjusted differences are obtained from a regression model controlling for immigrant background, gender, age, parental education, whether one lives with a partner, whether one has children and employment status (employed, unemployed, out of the labour force). Darker colours denote differences that are statistically significant at the 5% level.
Countries and economies are ranked in ascending order of the unadjusted difference in each Big Five domain between tertiary-educated adults and adult with below upper secondary education.
Source: OECD (2024[4]), Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) database, http://www.oecd.org/skills/piaac/publicdataandanalysis/ (accessed on 11 August 2025).
A comparison between adults with tertiary education and adults with upper-secondary education reveals a similar pattern, although differences in social and emotional skills levels are relatively smaller (Annex A). The largest differences appear in the domain of openness, where tertiary-educated adults consistently report higher average scores across all countries and economies. In most countries and economies, tertiary-educated adults also report higher average levels of emotional stability and extraversion. In agreeableness and conscientiousness, tertiary-educated adults score, on average, higher than adults with upper secondary education in approximately half of the countries and economies. Only in Austria, do adults with uppers secondary education score, on average, higher in conscientiousness.
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