Old habits die hard: 2025’s most common passwords were as predictable as ever

‘123456’ continues to reign supreme as the most commonly-used password among people across the world, according to two reports, from NordPass and Comparitech, respectively. A full 25 percent of the top 1,000 most-used passwords are made up of nothing but numerals.

In addition, ‘123456’ appealed to people of various age cohorts, as it was the most-favored option among millennials, Generation X and baby boomers alike, and the second most-popular option among Generation Z and the Silent Generation (after ‘12345’). This is according to NordPass’ analysis, which is based on billions of leaked passwords and sheds light on password trends among people in 44 countries.

Another all-too-predictable choice, ‘admin’, trailed close behind, with ‘12345678’, ‘123456789’ and ‘12345’ coming next, as many people clearly continue to favor convenience, putting their personal data, money and possibly reputations at risk.

In the US and the UK, the overall picture was just as grim ...