# Life Path number calculator

Enter your date of birth to get your Life Path number, the most important number in a numerology chart. The calculator reduces the month, day and year separately, which is the method that gets master numbers right.

## How to calculate a Life Path number

1. **Reduce the month.** March is 3. November is 11, a master number, and stays 11.
2. **Reduce the day.** The 12th is 1 + 2 = 3. The 11th, 22nd and 29th (2 + 9 = 11) give master numbers and stay as they are.
3. **Reduce the year.** 1990 is 1 + 9 + 9 + 0 = 19, then 1 + 9 = 10, then 1 + 0 = 1.
4. **Add the three and reduce again,** keeping 11, 22 or 33 if you reach one. For 12 March 1990: 3 + 3 + 1 = **7**.

Many calculators add every digit of the date at once instead. That usually gives the same answer, but not always: 8 December 1980 adds straight across to 29, then 11, a master number, while reducing in parts gives 3 + 8 + 9 = 20, then **2**. [The full walkthrough](/blog/how-to-calculate-a-life-path-number) explains why the parts method is the canonical one.

## What each Life Path number means

- [Life Path 1](/life-path-number-1): the leader and pioneer
- [Life Path 2](/life-path-number-2): the peacemaker and partner
- [Life Path 3](/life-path-number-3): the communicator and creator
- [Life Path 4](/life-path-number-4): the builder
- [Life Path 5](/life-path-number-5): the free spirit
- [Life Path 6](/life-path-number-6): the nurturer
- [Life Path 7](/life-path-number-7): the seeker and analyst
- [Life Path 8](/life-path-number-8): the achiever
- [Life Path 9](/life-path-number-9): the humanitarian
- [Life Path 11](/life-path-number-11): the intuitive, a master number
- [Life Path 22](/life-path-number-22): the master builder
- [Life Path 33](/life-path-number-33): the master teacher

## Frequently asked questions

### What is a Life Path number?

It is the number your date of birth reduces to, from 1 to 9, or 11, 22 or 33. In numerology it describes the main direction of your life: the strengths you bring and the lessons you meet along the way.

### Can a Life Path number be 11, 22 or 33?

Yes. These are master numbers, and they are kept rather than reduced to 2, 4 or 6. They are rarer than the single digits, and readings treat them as a more intense version of the digit they would reduce to.

### Does the time or place of birth matter?

No. The Life Path uses only the date. Time and place matter in astrology, not in Pythagorean numerology.