This chart shows the ten most abundant chemical elements in the universe by mass fraction. Hydrogen and helium, forged in the Big Bang, overwhelmingly dominate, while all heavier elements combined make up only about 2% of ordinary matter.

About: Most Abundant Elements in the Universe

Overview of the data behind this chart

AI Insight

The universe is almost entirely hydrogen (73.97%) and helium (24.02%), which together account for about 98% of all ordinary matter by mass. This overwhelming dominance traces back to Big Bang nucleosynthesis, which produced hydrogen and helium but almost nothing heavier. Every other element on this list, forged later inside stars, is comparatively rare: oxygen ranks third at just 1.04% and carbon fourth at 0.46%. From neon onward the values fall below 0.14%, with iron, nitrogen, silicon, magnesium and sulfur trailing at fractions of a percent. The steep gap between helium and oxygen, a factor of more than twenty, illustrates how scarce the elements of planets and life actually are on a cosmic scale.

Data source: Abundance of the chemical elements

Key Findings

Auto-computed highlights from this dataset

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Hydrogen leads with 74 in All Time.

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Average value in All Time: 10 · median: 0.

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Gap in All Time: Hydrogen is 1681.1× larger than Sulfur.

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Most Abundant Elements in the Universe

Data Insights Below

Data Insights

Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart

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Data Points

10 categories · 1 year

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Top Value

73.97

Hydrogen

Abundance in the Universe (% by mass) · All Time

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Metrics

Abundance in the Universe (% by mass)

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Period

All Time

Single year snapshot

Category Rankings

Abundance in the Universe (% by mass) · All Time

#	Category	All Time
🥇	Hydrogen	73.97
🥈	Helium	24.02
🥉	Oxygen	1.04
4	Carbon	0.46
5	Neon	0.13
6	Iron	0.11
7	Nitrogen	0.10
8	Silicon	0.07
9	Magnesium	0.06
10	Sulfur	0.04

Statistical Summary — Abundance in the Universe (% by mass) · All Time

73.97

Maximum

0.04

Minimum

Average

Median

What This Data Shows

Auto-generated trend summaries per category

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Hydrogen

Recorded 73.97 Abundance in the Universe (% by mass) in All Time.

Source

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Helium

Recorded 24.02 Abundance in the Universe (% by mass) in All Time.

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Oxygen

Recorded 1.04 Abundance in the Universe (% by mass) in All Time.

Source

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Carbon

Recorded 0.46 Abundance in the Universe (% by mass) in All Time.

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Neon

Recorded 0.13 Abundance in the Universe (% by mass) in All Time.

Source

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Iron

Recorded 0.11 Abundance in the Universe (% by mass) in All Time.

Source

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Nitrogen

Recorded 0.10 Abundance in the Universe (% by mass) in All Time.

Source

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Silicon

Recorded 0.07 Abundance in the Universe (% by mass) in All Time.

Source

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Magnesium

Recorded 0.06 Abundance in the Universe (% by mass) in All Time.

Source

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Sulfur

Recorded 0.04 Abundance in the Universe (% by mass) in All Time.

Source

Full Data Table

10 records across 1 year

10 sourced

Category	Metric	All Time
Hydrogen	Abundance in the Universe (% by mass)	73.97
Helium	Abundance in the Universe (% by mass)	24.02
Oxygen	Abundance in the Universe (% by mass)	1.04
Carbon	Abundance in the Universe (% by mass)	0.46
Neon	Abundance in the Universe (% by mass)	0.13
Iron	Abundance in the Universe (% by mass)	0.11
Nitrogen	Abundance in the Universe (% by mass)	0.10
Silicon	Abundance in the Universe (% by mass)	0.07
Magnesium	Abundance in the Universe (% by mass)	0.06
Sulfur	Abundance in the Universe (% by mass)	0.04