North of the equator, the rarest rising signs are Aries and Pisces. South of the equator, it’s Virgo and Libra. How rare depends on how far from the equator you were born. In Singapore every sign is close to equally common. In London, Aries rising is about three times rarer than Libra rising. In Reykjavík, Aries rises in around 13 minutes, which makes it about 17 times rarer than Leo rising there.
Search for your birth city below to see how common your rising sign is where you were born.
Why are some rising signs rarer than others?
Your rising sign is the zodiac sign that was coming up over the eastern horizon when you were born. All twelve signs rise once a day, but they don’t take equal turns.
The zodiac is a band tilted against the Earth’s equator, so it meets the horizon at an angle that keeps changing through the day. When that angle is steep, a sign crosses the horizon quickly. When it’s shallow, a sign lingers. Astrologers have known this for about two thousand years and call them signs of short ascension and signs of long ascension.
A sign that sits on the horizon for longer catches more births. That’s the whole effect. At the latitude of London, Aries takes about 52 minutes to rise and Libra takes about 2 hours and 50 minutes, so Libra rising turns up more than three times as often.
Which rising sign is the rarest where I was born?
Here are 51 of the 100 cities in our dataset, from the far north to the far south. The share of births assumes babies are born evenly around the clock (more on that below).
| City | Latitude | Rarest rising sign | Share of births | Rises in | Most common is x times as likely |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reykjavík | 64.2°N | Aries and Pisces | 0.9% each | 13m | 17.3 |
| Helsinki | 60.2°N | Aries and Pisces | 2.0% each | 29m | 6.8 |
| Oslo | 59.9°N | Aries and Pisces | 2.1% each | 30m | 6.6 |
| Stockholm | 59.3°N | Aries and Pisces | 2.2% each | 32m | 6.1 |
| Edinburgh | 56.0°N | Aries and Pisces | 2.9% each | 42m | 4.3 |
| Moscow | 55.8°N | Aries and Pisces | 2.9% each | 42m | 4.3 |
| Dublin | 53.4°N | Aries and Pisces | 3.4% each | 48m | 3.6 |
| London | 51.5°N | Aries and Pisces | 3.6% each | 52m | 3.2 |
| Berlin | 52.5°N | Aries and Pisces | 3.5% each | 50m | 3.4 |
| Amsterdam | 52.4°N | Aries and Pisces | 3.5% each | 50m | 3.4 |
| Paris | 48.9°N | Aries and Pisces | 4.0% each | 58m | 2.9 |
| Vancouver | 49.3°N | Aries and Pisces | 4.0% each | 57m | 2.9 |
| Seattle | 47.6°N | Aries and Pisces | 4.2% each | 1h 00m | 2.7 |
| Zurich | 47.4°N | Aries and Pisces | 4.2% each | 1h 01m | 2.7 |
| Milan | 45.5°N | Aries and Pisces | 4.4% each | 1h 04m | 2.5 |
| Montreal | 45.5°N | Aries and Pisces | 4.4% each | 1h 04m | 2.5 |
| Toronto | 43.6°N | Aries and Pisces | 4.7% each | 1h 07m | 2.3 |
| Boston | 42.4°N | Aries and Pisces | 4.8% each | 1h 09m | 2.2 |
| Andorra la Vella | 42.5°N | Aries and Pisces | 4.8% each | 1h 09m | 2.3 |
| Barcelona | 41.4°N | Aries and Pisces | 4.9% each | 1h 10m | 2.2 |
| Chicago | 41.9°N | Aries and Pisces | 4.8% each | 1h 10m | 2.2 |
| New York | 40.7°N | Aries and Pisces | 5.0% each | 1h 11m | 2.1 |
| Madrid | 40.4°N | Aries and Pisces | 5.0% each | 1h 12m | 2.1 |
| Rome | 41.9°N | Aries and Pisces | 4.8% each | 1h 09m | 2.2 |
| Washington, DC | 38.9°N | Aries and Pisces | 5.1% each | 1h 14m | 2.0 |
| Lisbon | 38.7°N | Aries and Pisces | 5.2% each | 1h 14m | 2.0 |
| San Francisco | 37.8°N | Aries and Pisces | 5.2% each | 1h 15m | 2.0 |
| Athens | 38.0°N | Aries and Pisces | 5.2% each | 1h 15m | 2.0 |
| Tokyo | 35.7°N | Aries and Pisces | 5.4% each | 1h 18m | 1.9 |
| Los Angeles | 34.0°N | Aries and Pisces | 5.6% each | 1h 20m | 1.8 |
| Dallas | 32.8°N | Aries and Pisces | 5.7% each | 1h 21m | 1.8 |
| Cairo | 30.0°N | Aries and Pisces | 5.9% each | 1h 24m | 1.7 |
| Houston | 29.8°N | Aries and Pisces | 5.9% each | 1h 25m | 1.7 |
| Miami | 25.8°N | Aries and Pisces | 6.2% each | 1h 29m | 1.6 |
| Dubai | 25.2°N | Aries and Pisces | 6.2% each | 1h 29m | 1.5 |
| Delhi | 28.6°N | Aries and Pisces | 6.0% each | 1h 26m | 1.6 |
| Mexico City | 19.4°N | Aries and Pisces | 6.6% each | 1h 35m | 1.4 |
| Mumbai | 19.1°N | Aries and Pisces | 6.6% each | 1h 35m | 1.4 |
| Bangkok | 13.8°N | Aries and Pisces | 7.0% each | 1h 40m | 1.3 |
| Lagos | 6.5°N | Aries and Pisces | 7.4% each | 1h 46m | 1.2 |
| Singapore | 1.4°N | Aries and Pisces | 7.7% each | 1h 50m | 1.2 |
| Nairobi | 1.3°S | Virgo and Libra | 7.7% each | 1h 50m | 1.2 |
| Jakarta | 6.2°S | Virgo and Libra | 7.4% each | 1h 46m | 1.2 |
| Lima | 12.1°S | Virgo and Libra | 7.1% each | 1h 41m | 1.3 |
| São Paulo | 23.6°S | Virgo and Libra | 6.3% each | 1h 31m | 1.5 |
| Johannesburg | 26.2°S | Virgo and Libra | 6.2% each | 1h 28m | 1.6 |
| Sydney | 33.9°S | Virgo and Libra | 5.6% each | 1h 20m | 1.8 |
| Buenos Aires | 34.6°S | Virgo and Libra | 5.5% each | 1h 19m | 1.8 |
| Cape Town | 33.9°S | Virgo and Libra | 5.6% each | 1h 20m | 1.8 |
| Melbourne | 37.8°S | Virgo and Libra | 5.2% each | 1h 15m | 2.0 |
| Auckland | 36.9°S | Virgo and Libra | 5.3% each | 1h 16m | 1.9 |
The full dataset for all 100 cities, with the share for every sign, is available to download from the tool above.
What the numbers show
The equator is almost fair. In Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Nairobi, the most common rising sign is less than 1.2 times as likely as the rarest. Every sign takes close to two hours to rise.
Rarity doubles by the Mediterranean. Around 38 degrees north, the latitude of Lisbon, Athens, Washington and San Francisco, the most common rising signs become twice as likely as Aries or Pisces rising.
It triples by London and quadruples by Edinburgh. At about 50 degrees north the gap reaches three times, and by 55 degrees north, the latitude of Edinburgh, Copenhagen and Moscow, it’s four times.
The Nordic capitals are extreme. In Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki, Aries and Pisces each rise in around half an hour and account for about 2% of births each.
Reykjavík breaks the scale. Just below the Arctic Circle, Aries rises in about 13 minutes. Out of every 1,000 babies born there, fewer than 10 would have Aries rising, compared with about 151 with Leo rising.
The Southern Hemisphere flips it. In Sydney, Buenos Aires and Cape Town, Virgo and Libra are the rarest rising signs, and Aries and Pisces are among the most common. If you were born in Melbourne with Libra rising, you’re the rare one.
What is the most common rising sign?
It depends on the hemisphere, and at most latitudes it’s close to a four-way tie.
North of the equator, Leo, Virgo, Libra and Scorpio lead. In London, Virgo and Libra each account for 11.9% of births and Leo and Scorpio for 11.8%. Further north, Leo and Scorpio edge ahead. Near the equator, the differences shrink so much that no sign really stands out.
South of the equator, the order reverses. Aries, Taurus, Aquarius and Pisces are the most common, all close to 10% each in Sydney.
Is Aquarius or Scorpio rising rare?
No, despite what you may have read. Scorpio rising is one of the most common rising signs in the Northern Hemisphere, not one of the rarest. Aquarius rising is less common than average in the north, but it’s still more common than Aries or Pisces rising everywhere north of the equator.
The confusion often comes from mixing up rising signs with Sun signs. When people talk about Aquarius being the rarest zodiac sign, they usually mean the Sun sign, which depends on the season people are born in. Rising sign rarity is a different question with a different answer, because it depends on the time of day and the latitude.
Does the time of day people are born change this?
A little. Our figures assume births are spread evenly across the day and night. In reality, births aren’t perfectly even. Scheduled deliveries mean more babies are born on weekday mornings in many countries, for example.
That changes the exact percentages, but it doesn’t change the pattern. Aries rising still spends only about 52 minutes on the London horizon each day, whatever time babies arrive, and it is still the rarest rising sign across the Northern Hemisphere.
How rare is my rising sign?
Find your birth city in the tool above to see the exact share for your rising sign. If you don’t know your rising sign yet, the rising sign calculator works it out from your birth date, time and place, and shows how long your sign took to rise where you were born.
Having a rare rising sign doesn’t make you better or luckier. It does make you a little less likely to meet someone who shares it, which, if you’re a Pisces rising in Helsinki, might explain a lot.
How we calculated this
For each city, we took its latitude and calculated how long each zodiac sign takes to cross the eastern horizon, using the standard oblique ascension method with the tilt of the Earth’s axis set at 23.4393 degrees, about 23.44. The script that builds the dataset is in our code, so every number can be rebuilt. A sign’s share of births is its share of one full turn of the sky, 23 hours and 56 minutes, assuming births are spread evenly through the day.
Longitude doesn’t affect the result, only latitude does, so any city at the same latitude as one on our list will have the same numbers. The calculation doesn’t apply above the Arctic or Antarctic Circles, where the Ascendant behaves unusually and parts of the zodiac can skip the eastern horizon altogether. As a cross-check, published estimates put Aries rising at about 3.6% at the latitude of London and Berlin, the same figure our method gives.
Use this data
The full dataset is free to use under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY 4.0). If you write about it, please credit Hali and link to this page. For questions or custom cuts of the data, such as a specific country or list of cities, contact us at hello@haliknows.com.
Cite this study
The findings, the chart and the data are free to use. All we ask is a credit to Hali and a link back to this page.
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Citation
Hali Knows team (2026). The rarest rising sign, city by city. Hali. Published 1 October 2026, updated 26 October 2026. https://haliknows.com/rarest-rising-sign
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<a href="https://haliknows.com/rarest-rising-sign"><img src="https://haliknows.com/charts/rarest-rising-sign.png" alt="Bar chart of how often Aries is rising in 7 cities, from the equator to the far north. It falls from 7.7% of the day in Singapore to 0.9% in Reykjavík, against 8.3% if every sign were equal." width="1200" height="630" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a>
<p>Chart by <a href="https://haliknows.com/rarest-rising-sign">Hali</a>, CC BY 4.0</p>Hali's findings, chart and data are free to use under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY 4.0). Credit Hali and link to this page. Read the licence