干支 · 亥 (い)
Pig — The Generous
The Pig is one of the twelve Chinese zodiac animals, a yin sign with Water as its fixed element (recent Pig years include 1995, 2007, 2019, 2031, 2043). Warm, sincere, and generous. Pigs enjoy life and want others to enjoy it too — abundance shared without calculation. People born in a Pig year are typically generous, sincere and diligent.
Personality
The Pig is generous, compassionate, and sincere. Those born in this year are kind-hearted souls who enjoy life's pleasures and bring joy to others.
Strengths
Strengths in depth
The Pig's defining strengths run to generosity, sincerity, tolerance, diligence and compassion — the practical gifts that let a Pig turn its natural temperament into real results.
Challenges
Challenges to watch
Left unchecked, the Pig's weaknesses tend to surface as naivety, materialism, gullibility, self-indulgence and laziness. Naming these patterns early is how a Pig keeps its strengths from tipping into their shadow side.
Best careers
The Pig is well suited to careers such as entertainment, hospitality, healthcare, retail, transportation and charity, where its strengths have room to work.
Best matches
Difficult pairings
Who matches the Pig
The Pig matches most naturally with the Goat, the Rabbit and the Tiger — the animals of its zodiac trine, who share a compatible rhythm and tend to bring out the Pig at its most generous. These trine partners usually make the easiest friendships and the steadiest love matches. Harmony runs thinnest with the Snake and the Monkey, whose pace and priorities pull against the Pig's temperament rather than complementing it. Sharpest of all is the clash with the Snake, the Pig's opposite sign: seated six positions away on the twelve-year wheel, it meets the Pig head-on, which is why traditional Chinese astrology calls it the Pig's secret enemy. None of these pairings is a fixed verdict — knowing where friction naturally lives is what lets any Pig relationship be understood and made to last.
Pig years
A Pig year comes around once every twelve years, when the Pig takes its turn as the ruling animal of the Chinese zodiac's repeating cycle. Recent and upcoming Pig years include 1995, 2007, 2019, 2031, 2043 — anyone born within one of those lunar years carries the Pig as their birth-year sign. The twelve animals always run in the same fixed order, so a Pig year follows the Dog's and gives way to the Rat's. The Pig's own fixed element is Water, but each pass through the cycle also carries one of the five heavenly elements — Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water — in a sixty-year rotation, so no two Pig years feel quite the same. Counting forward in twelve-year steps, the next Pig year after 2043 falls in 2055.
Frequently asked questions
What years are the Pig?
Recent Year of the Pig dates include 1995, 2007, 2019, 2031, 2043. The Pig is a yin sign whose fixed element is Water.
What is the Pig personality?
The Pig is typically generous, sincere, diligent, trusting and optimistic. Warm, sincere, and generous. Pigs enjoy life and want others to enjoy it too — abundance shared without calculation.
Which signs match the Pig?
The Pig matches best with the Goat, Rabbit and Tiger. These pairings share the natural harmony of the Chinese zodiac trine the Pig belongs to.
What is the Pig's enemy sign?
The Pig's secret enemy is the Snake, the sign that sits directly opposite it — six positions away on the twelve-year wheel. This head-on opposition is the sharpest natural clash of temperament in the Chinese zodiac, which is why tradition names the Snake the Pig's enemy sign.
What element is the Pig?
The Pig's fixed element is Water, and the Pig is a yin sign. This Water polarity stays constant behind the rotating heavenly element that colours each individual Pig year.
When is the next Pig year?
Pig years recur every twelve years. The most recent example years are 1995, 2007, 2019, 2031, 2043; counting forward, the next Pig year after 2043 falls in 2055.