A look at character data from D&D Beyond
During a development update video on August 29th 2018 the following graphic was shown. It shows the popularity of the race and class combinations for the 20 most popular races.
I wanted to use this data and see which combinations appeared more or less often than expected based on the popularity of its component race and class. To do this I calculated what the mathematically expected popularity of each combination would be by multiplying the popularity of the component race and class. For example, if 20% of all characters were human, and 10% of all characters were fighters, you would mathematically expect 20% * 10% = 2% of all characters to be human fighters. I then compared the observed popularity to the expected popularity and expressed it as a percent of expected. This was the result:
The highest and lowest scoring combinations were:
Table: 10 Highest Combinations
| Race | Class | Percent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Firbolg | Druid | 582 |
| 2 | Goliath | Barbarian | 452 |
| 3 | Half-Orc | Barbarian | 376 |
| 4 | Gnome | Wizard | 332 |
| 5 | Tortle | Monk | 281 |
| 6 | Tiefling | Warlock | 270 |
| 7 | Aarakocra | Monk | 267 |
| 8 | Kenku | Rogue | 264 |
| 9 | Dwarf | Cleric | 258 |
| 10 | Aasimar | Paladin | 253 |
Table: 10 Lowest Combinations
| Race | Class | Percent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 240 | Changling | Barbarian | 23 |
| 239 | Kenku | Barbarian | 24 |
| 238 | Half-Elf | Barbarian | 24 |
| 237 | Kenku | Paladin | 25 |
| 236 | Lizardfolk | Bard | 28 |
| 235 | Elf | Barbarian | 29 |
| 234 | Firbolg | Rogue | 30 |
| 233 | Tortle | Rogue | 31 |
| 232 | Goliath | Rogue | 32 |
| 231 | Goliath | Wizard | 33 |