Natal charts
The rarest Venus and Mars signs, by the numbers
For people born between 1950 and 2008, the rarest Venus signs are Sagittarius (6.9%), Libra (7.0%) and Pisces (7.2%), and the most common is Aries (10.1%). Venus in Scorpio, often described as rare on social media, is one of the most common at 9.3%, about one person in eleven. Mars is rarest in Aquarius (6.2%), Aries (6.8%) and Capricorn (6.9%) and most common in Cancer (9.7%) and Leo (9.6%). We got these numbers from 100,000 random birth times calculated with Swiss Ephemeris, the astronomical library behind our calculators. The gaps have two astronomical causes: Venus lingers in the signs where it turns retrograde, and Mars slows down on the far side of its stretched orbit. They also shift a lot with your birth decade. Venus in Virgo was the most common Venus of the 1950s at 13.0% and one of the less common ones for people born in 2000–2008. You can check your own Venus and Mars in the free sexuality birth chart calculator. With a partner's birth date as well, you can see how your Venus and Mars meet theirs, element by element.
The full ranking
Each figure is the share of people with Venus or Mars in that sign, across all birth years from 1950 to 2008. An even spread would give every sign 8.3%.
| Sign | Venus | Mars |
|---|---|---|
| Aries | 10.1% | 6.8% |
| Taurus | 7.7% | 8.7% |
| Gemini | 9.3% | 8.8% |
| Cancer | 7.5% | 9.7% |
| Leo | 8.5% | 9.6% |
| Virgo | 9.1% | 9.2% |
| Libra | 7.0% | 9.1% |
| Scorpio | 9.3% | 9.2% |
| Sagittarius | 6.9% | 8.7% |
| Capricorn | 7.7% | 6.9% |
| Aquarius | 9.5% | 6.2% |
| Pisces | 7.2% | 7.3% |
Even the rarest sign here belongs to more than six people in every hundred, about two in a class of thirty.
Why Venus lingers where it turns back
Roughly every 19 months Venus appears to halt and move backwards through the zodiac for about six weeks, a phase astrologers call retrograde. The planet crosses that patch of sky three times, forward, back and forward again, so the signs where retrograde phases fall collect extra days.
| Venus sign | Retrograde days, 1950–2008 | Share of people |
|---|---|---|
| Aries | 289 | 10.1% |
| Scorpio | 288 | 9.3% |
| Gemini | 228 | 9.3% |
| Virgo | 215 | 9.1% |
| Aquarius | 205 | 9.5% |
| Taurus | 8 | 7.7% |
| Sagittarius | 1 | 6.9% |
| Libra | 0 | 7.0% |
| Pisces | 0 | 7.2% |
The pattern is almost one to one. The five signs with the most retrograde days are the five most common Venus signs, and Libra and Pisces, where Venus never went retrograde in these 59 years, are among the rarest. Venus in Scorpio sits near the top for exactly this reason.
Why Mars slows down between Cancer and Libra
Mars has one of the more stretched orbits among the planets, so its speed changes over its two-year trip around the Sun. It moves slowest when it is farthest from the Sun, and that far point of its orbit lies toward Virgo as seen from the Sun. Each sign covers 30° of the zodiac. In our day-by-day calculation Mars covered about 0.51° a day on average in Cancer, Leo, Virgo and Libra, against 0.67° in Aquarius and 0.65° in Aries.
Mars also goes retrograde for two to three months roughly every 26 months, and between 1950 and 2008 those loops fell mostly in the same stretch: 255 retrograde days in Cancer and 244 in Virgo against 61 in Aquarius. Slower travel plus more loops means more birthdays with Mars in Cancer, Leo, Virgo or Libra, and fewer with Mars in Aquarius, Aries or Capricorn.
Your birth decade changes the answer
Averages over 59 years hide how much the picture moves from one generation to the next. Venus repeats its retrograde phases in nearly the same places about every eight years, while each new Mars loop falls in a different part of the zodiac, so each decade has its own common and rare placements.
| Born | Most common Venus | Rarest Venus | Most common Mars | Rarest Mars |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950–1959 | Virgo 13.0% | Capricorn 5.6% | Scorpio 11.5% | Aquarius 5.4% |
| 1960–1969 | Aries 12.6% | Capricorn 6.1% | Leo 13.0% | Taurus 5.1% |
| 1970–1979 | Scorpio 11.9% | Sagittarius 6.2% | Gemini 12.0% | Capricorn 4.9% |
| 1980–1989 | Aries, Gemini 10.1% | Sagittarius 6.7% | Scorpio 13.0% | Aquarius 5.1% |
| 1990–1999 | Gemini 11.1% | Cancer 6.1% | Cancer 11.9% | Pisces 5.6% |
| 2000–2008 | Aries 11.3% | Cancer, Libra 6.5% | Sagittarius 12.2% | Aquarius 5.4% |
So if you were born in the 1970s, Venus in Scorpio was the most common Venus among your classmates, at 11.9%. For people born in the 1960s, Mars in Taurus was the rarest Mars at 5.1%, while ten years later it was among the most common at 11.1%.
What the rare signs mean in astrology
Rarity is a statement about the sky, and astrology does not treat rare placements as stronger or more special. Here is how astrologers traditionally interpret the three rarest signs for each planet.
- Venus in Sagittarius is drawn to freedom, humour and adventure, to people who make life feel wider.
- Venus in Libra is drawn to taste, tact and a sense of balance, and likes romance to be graceful.
- Venus in Pisces is drawn to tenderness and imagination, to someone who understands without many words.
- Mars in Aquarius acts in unexpected ways and starts with ideas and conversation.
- Mars in Aries acts fast and directly and often makes the first move.
- Mars in Capricorn is steady and patient and keeps a chosen course for a long time.
Your Venus and Mars matter more in combination than on their own: Venus describes what attracts you, Mars how you act on it. How the two work with the Moon and Black Moon Lilith (the farthest point of the Moon's orbit, which astrologers link with hidden desire) is covered in what your birth chart says about your sexuality.
What this cannot tell you
The frequencies come from astronomy, and any accurate table of planetary positions for the same years will give the same result. The meanings come from astrological tradition, and tradition has not passed blind testing: in Shawn Carlson's double-blind study in Nature (1985) astrologers matched charts to personalities at chance level, as did the studies reviewed by Geoffrey Dean and Ivan Kelly in 2003.
A rare Venus or Mars only means you were born in years when that planet moved quickly through the sign. It does not make your taste or temperament unusual, and a common placement does not make them ordinary.