Gen Z tends to favor names, using “Skibidi instead of Maria” as an example, NordPass, in collaboration with NordStellar, has released the seventh edition of its annual study on the 200 most frequently used passwords. while Baby Boomers favor “maria”. The study also addresses generational differences.
The most common passwords in Germany across all generations this year look like this:
- admin
- 123456
- lol123456
- Kasperle123
- null12345
- 12345678
- 123456789
- password
- music association
- 012345
- Forgotten1
- 12345
- Nessie
- master01
- yxcvbnm
- password
- zwieback
- 1234567890
- Lol123456
- Health
In this country, words, number combinations and common keyboard shortcuts continue to top the top 20 list. However, some passwords also have a regional connection – from “Kasperle123” to “rusks” to “health“. Compared to countries like the USA, where swear words and slang are becoming more and more common, Germans prefer simple patterns and everyday words.
More special characters due to duty
The most commonly used password in the world is still “123456”, followed by “admin” in second place and “12345678” in third place. However, compared to the previous year, there was a significant increase in the use of special characters in passwords. This year, 32 passwords containing special characters are on the global list – a significant increase from the only six passwords last year. The most commonly used special character in passwords is “@”, but most passwords are hardly more complex than “P@ssw0rd“, “Admin@123” or “Abcd@1234”. However, the increasingly widespread compulsion to combine numbers, lowercase and uppercase letters and special characters is clearly noticeable in these.
Password continues to be popular as a password
The word “password” itself is still one of the most popular passwords worldwide. It is used both in English form and in the respective national languages in almost all the regions studied – from the Slovak “heslo” and Finnish “salasana” to the French “motdepasse” and the Spanish “contraseña”.
The older, the more names
What is also interesting about the data is that the most frequently chosen passwords worldwide hardly differ by generation. From Gen Z to the baby Boomers and the silent generation, the first places are always occupied by the simple sequence of numbers 1 to 6 or 8. Number combinations such as “12345” and “123456” are among the most used passwords for both 18 and 80-year-olds and in all age groups in between. The biggest difference is that older generations are more likely to use names in their passwords. While “maria” is in fourth place among the baby Boomers, the term “skibidi”, which is more commonly used by the Gen Alpha, which has no clear meaning and can mean both “cool” and “evil” depending on the context, is in seventh place among the Gen Z.
Methodology of the study
For the evaluation of the most frequently used passwords, NordPass and NordStellar rely on current public data leaks and darknet databases with passwords that were disclosed between September 2024 and September 2025. The data were evaluated statistically aggregated. No personal data was collected or purchased for the investigation, and in particular no data from users of the companies themselves.
