Overview
- NordPass’s latest top‑200 list, based on credentials leaked between September 2024 and September 2025, ranks “123456” as the most common password worldwide.
- In the United States, “admin” is the most prevalent password, followed by “password,” with other simple numeric strings filling out the top ranks.
- Use of special characters rose to 32 entries in the global top 200 from six last year, yet many are predictable variants such as “P@ssw0rd” and “Admin@123.”
- Password quality is similarly weak across generations, with Gen Z’s top choice “12345” trailing older cohorts that most often use “123456.”
- NordPass and NordSteller built the dataset from public breaches and dark‑web repositories, as broader context includes researchers reporting roughly 16 billion leaked credentials in June and experts urging long unique passwords, password managers, and multi‑factor authentication.