Year of the Rooster: Personality, Compatibility & Lucky Traits

The Rooster is the tenth sign of the Chinese zodiac — observant, hardworking, and proudly confident. If you were born in a Rooster year, here's what your sign is said to reveal about your personality, love life, and career.

Which years are the Year of the Rooster?

Recent Rooster years include 1981, 1993, 2005, and 2017, with the next in 2029. Because the Chinese year begins at Lunar New Year, those born in January or early February should check the rollover — you may belong to the previous sign, the Monkey.

Rooster personality and traits

• Observant, sharp, and detail-oriented.
• Hardworking, organized, and punctual.
• Confident, honest, and direct.
• Loyal and quick to speak the truth.

Roosters can also be critical, blunt, and perfectionistic to the point of impatience.

Rooster love and compatibility

The Rooster's best matches are the Ox, Snake, and Dragon, who appreciate the Rooster's honesty and drive. The classic clash is with the Rabbit, whose sensitivity can bruise against the Rooster's bluntness. In love, Roosters are devoted, attentive, and protective.

Rooster careers

Diligent and precise, Roosters thrive in management, media, hospitality, human resources, and any organized, public-facing role that rewards standards and hard work.

For the full system — the five elements and the lunar-new-year rule — see our Chinese zodiac guide, and your complete reading calculates your animal, element, and yin/yang.