Rat Chinese Zodiac

Personality, strengths, compatibility and birth years

The Chinese zodiac assigns each year one of twelve animals on a repeating cycle, set by your birth year rather than your birth date. The animal describes temperament and the company you keep easily — it is a separate system from Western star signs, and the two rarely say the same thing.

Personality

The Rat is the mastermind of the Chinese zodiac — clever, resourceful, and always three steps ahead. You have a natural talent for turning nothing into something, and your charm opens doors others don't even see. Rats thrive in social settings but guard their inner world fiercely.

Strengths

Adaptable, quick-thinking, charming, resourceful, ambitious, detail-oriented

Challenges

Secretive, greedy, calculating, stubborn, critical of others

Best matches

Dragon, Monkey, Ox

Birth years

1936 (from 24 Jan), 1948 (from 10 Feb), 1960 (from 28 Jan), 1972 (from 15 Feb), 1984 (from 2 Feb), 1996 (from 19 Feb), 2008 (from 7 Feb), 2020 (from 25 Jan), 2032 (from 11 Feb).

A Chinese year begins at Chinese New Year, not on 1 January, so the dates above are where each year actually starts. Born before that date and you belong to the previous year's animal — Aethera works this out from your full birth date.

Lucky numbers

2, 3

Lucky colours

Blue, gold, green

Were you born in a Rat year?
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The other eleven animals

OxTigerRabbitDragonSnakeHorseGoatMonkeyRoosterDogPig