The Rarest Rising Sign Depends on Where You Were Born: Aries in London, Libra in Sydney (Calculated)
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The rarest rising sign depends on where you were born. In London and New York it is Aries and Pisces. In Sydney and Buenos Aires it is the opposite pair, Virgo and Libra. Near the equator, all twelve are close to equal.
Every sun sign lasts about a month. Rising signs are different: they come and go every day, and some stay on the horizon three times as long as others. We timed each one with the same ascendant calculation behind our birth charts.
How long each rising sign lasts, every day
Minutes per day that each sign is rising, over one full turn of the sky:
| Sign | London (51.5°N) | New York (40.7°N) | Singapore (1.4°N) | Sydney (33.9°S) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aries | 52 | 71 | 110 | 143 |
| Taurus | 69 | 86 | 119 | 145 |
| Gemini | 106 | 115 | 128 | 139 |
| Cancer | 151 | 142 | 129 | 118 |
| Leo | 170 | 153 | 120 | 94 |
| Virgo | 170 | 151 | 113 | 80 |
| Libra | 171 | 152 | 113 | 80 |
| Scorpio | 170 | 153 | 120 | 94 |
| Sagittarius | 151 | 142 | 129 | 118 |
| Capricorn | 106 | 114 | 128 | 139 |
| Aquarius | 69 | 86 | 119 | 145 |
| Pisces | 53 | 71 | 110 | 143 |
In London, Aries rises for 52 minutes a day and Libra for 171. If births were spread evenly over the clock, about 1 in 28 Londoners would have Aries rising and about 1 in 8 Libra.
The farther from the equator, the bigger the gap
| City | Rarest rising signs | Most common |
|---|---|---|
| Reykjavik (64.1°N) | Aries, Pisces (13 min a day) | Leo, Scorpio (217 min) |
| London (51.5°N) | Aries, Pisces (52–53 min) | Libra, Virgo (170–171 min) |
| New York (40.7°N) | Aries, Pisces (71 min) | Leo, Scorpio (153 min) |
| Seoul (37.6°N) | Aries, Pisces (76 min) | Leo, Scorpio (149 min) |
| Los Angeles (34.1°N) | Aries, Pisces (80 min) | Leo, Scorpio (145 min) |
| Mumbai (19.1°N) | Aries, Pisces (95–96 min) | Cancer, Sagittarius (134 min) |
| Singapore (1.4°N) | Aries, Pisces (110 min) | Cancer, Sagittarius (129 min) |
| Sydney (33.9°S) | Virgo, Libra (80 min) | Taurus, Aquarius (145 min) |
| Buenos Aires (34.6°S) | Virgo, Libra (79 min) | Taurus, Aquarius (146 min) |
In Reykjavik, Aries is on the horizon for just 13 minutes a day.
Why
The zodiac is tilted against the equator by about 23.4 degrees. Signs near the spring equinox point (Pisces and Aries) cross the horizon at a shallow angle in the northern hemisphere and pass quickly. Signs around the autumn equinox point (Virgo and Libra) rise steeply and take much longer. Astrologers have long called these signs of short and long ascension. In the southern hemisphere the tilt works the other way, so the pairs swap.
What the numbers do and don't tell you
How long a sign takes to rise is astronomy. What a rising sign means is astrology's interpretation, and these figures cannot prove or disprove it. They also assume births are spread evenly over the day, which is close to true but not exact. What they do show is that "rare" depends on where you were born: an Aries rising is twice as common in Singapore as in London.
How we calculated: ascendant from local sidereal time, latitude and the obliquity of the ecliptic (Meeus formulas in our public-domain chart engine), sampled every 15 seconds over one sidereal day for each city. Totals are minutes per sidereal day (23 h 56 min). Rounded to the minute.