The Complete List of Core Values

Identifying your values can help you to make decisions that resonate more deeply with your deepest sense of what is "right" and "good". Below is a (close-to!) complete list of values to support your personal growth.

Use the list of core values to:

Identify your own values
Explore your identity
Understand your basic motivations
Reflect on collective beliefs
Guide goal-setting processes

What Are Core Values?

Core values are the foundational principles and beliefs that guide your behavior. They serve as a compass, steering you toward personal fulfillment and shaping both your personal and collective identity.

Your personal core values develop through social interactions - within your family, communities, and culture at large. Without actively reflecting on your values, you’ll probably find yourself mirroring the values of the people you spend the most time with.

For this reason, taking the time to reflect on your core values also offers a powerful framework for setting priorities consciously. By consciously identifying your personal core values, you can begin to understand the deepest motivations behind your actions and decisions.

Whether you're seeking personal transformation, more positive relationships, or change within your community, exploring values can give you important insight into the motivations behind your own (and others') behavior and actions.

In your daily life, living in alignment with your core values can lead to more meaningful and positive relationships, boost your motivation to achieve long-term goals, enhance your overall sense of purpose, and enable you to make decisions that align with what truly matters to you.

The Most Common Core Values, According to Research

What matters most to you may be highly personal, but there are some common themes.

Some values are universal, according to research. The most common themes include engagement with family and traditions, personal growth and responsibility, and economic priorities.

Global analysis of Valuegraphics surveys from 2020 conducted in 152 languages found that the top ten most common personal core values across cultures include: ¹

Family
Relationships
Financial Security
Belonging
Community
Personal Growth
Loyalty
Religion / Spirituality
Employment Security
Personal Responsibility

Complete Core Values List

Accountability
Acceptance
Adventure
Affection
Altruism
Ambition
Amity
Authenticity
Awareness
Balance
Belonging
Benevolence
Charity
Chivalry
Citizenship
Clarity
Collaboration
Commitment
Community
Compassion
Connection
Cooperation
Courage
Creativity
Curiosity
Dignity
Discipline
Diversity
Efficiency
Empathy
Equality
Esteem
Excellence
Experimentation
Expression
Fairness
Faith
Forgiveness
Freedom
Fun
Generosity
Grace
Gratitude
Grit
Growth
Hard Work
Harmony
Honesty
Honor
Hospitality
Hope
Humility
Humor
Independence
Inclusivity
Influence
Innovation
Inquiry
Insight
Integrity
Justice
Kindness
Knowledge
Leadership
Learning
Legacy
Liberty
Love
Loyalty
Mastery
Moderation
Non-violence
Obedience
Open-mindedness
Optimism
Originality
Patience
Passion
Peace
Performance
Perseverance
Power
Precision
Pragmatism
Punctuality
Questioning
Rationality
Rigor
Responsibility
Reliability
Respect
Resilience
Resourcefulness
Reverence
Safety
Security
Self-Reliance
Sensitivity
Simplicity
Stability
Stewardship
Strength
Success
Sustainability
Tradition
Transparency
Trust
Truth
Unity
Vision
Vitality
Wisdom
Wonder
Worship

Core Values Listed by Category

Identifying your values can give you more than a profound sense of purpose in life; the process can offer insight into your deeper motivations, too.

Below, the complete list of core values above is grouped loosely into three categories based on the source of motivation behind them, as defined by the Ethics Unwrapped project from the University of Texas at Austin.

Intrinsic Values

Acceptance
Adventure
Affection
Amity
Authenticity
Awareness
Balance
Clarity
Compassion
Connection
Cooperation
Courage
Creativity
Curiosity
Dignity
Discipline
Diversity
Empathy
Experimentation
Expression
Fun
Generosity
Grit
Growth
Harmony
Hope
Humility
Humor
Independence
Inquiry
Insight
Innovation
Joy
Learning
Open-mindedness
Optimism
Originality
Patience
Passion
Peace
Perseverance
Responsibility
Rationality
Resilience
Sensitivity
Simplicity
Stability
Strength
Vitality
Wonder

Extrinsic Values

Accountability
Ambition
Belonging
Citizenship
Collaboration
Commitment
Community
Efficiency
Esteem
Excellence
Hard Work
Influence
Knowledge
Leadership
Legacy
Liberty
Loyalty
Obedience
Performance
Power
Precision
Pragmatism
Punctuality
Reliability
Resourcefulness
Security
Self-Reliance
Stewardship
Success
Transparency
Vision
Wealth

Sacred and Moral Values

Altruism
Benevolence
Charity
Chivalry
Fairness
Faith
Forgiveness
Freedom
Grace
Gratitude
Honesty
Honor
Hospitality
Inclusivity
Integrity
Justice
Kindness
Love
Mastery
Moderation
Non-violence
Questioning
Respect
Reverence
Safety
Service
Sustainability
Tradition
Trust
Truth
Unity
Wisdom
Worship

Sources

Neufeld, Dorothy. “The World’s Most Influential Values, In One Graphic.” Visual Capitalist. November 5, 2020. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/most-influential-values/.
Schwartz, Shalom H., Jan Cieciuch, Michele Vecchione, Eldad Davidov, Ronald Fischer, Constanze Beierlein, Alice Ramos, et al. “Refining the Theory of Basic Individual Values.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 103, no. 4 (October 1, 2012): 663–88. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029393.
Ethics Unwrapped. “Values - Ethics Unwrapped,” November 5, 2022. https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/glossary/values.'
The Center for Self-Determination Theory. “Theoretical Overview,” n.d. https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/theory/.