Self-check · Emotions
Self-Esteem Test: the Rosenberg scale, scored as published
Self-esteem is how favourably you regard yourself overall — and it moves with circumstances rather than being fixed. This is the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, ten statements used in research since 1965, scored 0–30 with the published cutoffs. It is not a diagnosis.
A research questionnaire, not a diagnosis. It measures how you regard yourself now, which is not a measure of your worth.
-
THE ROSENBERG SCALE10 statementsThe standard research measure of self-esteem since 1965.
-
SCORED AS PUBLISHEDBelow 15 is low, 15–25 is normalThose are the published cutoffs on the 0–30 scale, not numbers we invented for this page.
-
PRIVATENothing is saved or sentFree, no account, no sign-up. Your result stays in your browser.
A research measure
Take the self-esteem test
Ten statements about how you regard yourself. About a minute, and the result appears only in your browser.
Your result
What the ranges mean
- 0–14 Low — below the scale’s normal range
- 15–25 Normal and healthy — where most people sit
- 26–30 High — a secure sense of your own worth
Ten statements scored 0 to 3 give a total of 0–30. Five of the ten are worded negatively and scored in reverse, which is why agreeing with everything does not produce a high score. The cutoffs come from the scale itself: below 15 may indicate problematic low self-esteem, and 15–25 is the normal range.
Below 15 may indicate problematic low self-esteem; 15 to 25 is the normal range. Those are the scale’s published figures.
The short answer
What is self-esteem?
A person’s overall evaluation of their own worth — the background sense of whether they are basically alright, as distinct from how capable they feel at any particular thing. Morris Rosenberg built this scale in 1965 to measure exactly that, and it has remained the most widely used measure of self-esteem in research ever since. Its design is unusually plain: ten short statements, half of them positive and half negative, answered on a four-point agreement scale. Nothing about it is clever, which is part of why it has lasted.
It is worth being clear about what the number can and cannot support. The scale measures a self-assessment at a point in time. It does not establish anything about how you will perform, how others see you, or what will happen to you — the relationship between self-esteem and life outcomes is correlational, contested, and frequently overstated in popular writing. What it does well is tell you how harshly you are currently judging yourself.
A low score describes your current self-assessment, not your value and not your capability. Those come apart more often than people expect.
The University of Maryland hosts the scale and its scoring instructions — Rosenberg’s own institution, and the reason this page can state cutoffs rather than invent them. Ten items, scored 0 to 3, five reverse-scored, total 0 to 30, with below 15 flagged as possible problematic low self-esteem.
View sourceThe scale
What the ten statements ask about
Three clusters, with the negatively-worded items doing most of the discriminating.
Basic worth
“I feel that I am a person of worth, at least on an equal plane with others.” The most direct item on the scale, and the one most people answer quickly and then reconsider.
Qualities and capability
Having a number of good qualities, and being able to do things as well as most people. Note that this is comparative — the scale asks how you rate yourself against others, not in absolute terms.
Satisfaction and attitude
Taking a positive attitude toward yourself, and being satisfied with yourself on the whole. These two carry a lot of the variance, and they are where a quietly low self-regard tends to show up first.
The reverse-scored five
Feeling like a failure, not having much to be proud of, wishing for more self-respect, feeling useless at times, and thinking you are no good at all. Agreeing with these lowers your score. They exist because people answer positive statements more generously than negative ones.
“At times” is doing work
Two items are hedged — “I certainly feel useless at times”, “at times I think I am no good at all”. Nearly everyone agrees with those occasionally, which is why they are scored alongside the rest rather than treated as warning signs on their own.
Why it is only ten items
Rosenberg wanted a single global measure rather than a profile, and resisted the temptation to subdivide. Later attempts to split it into positive and negative factors mostly recover the effect of the question wording rather than two real constructs.
Low self-esteem, modesty and depression
Three things that produce similar answers for different reasons.
| Pattern | What it looks like | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Modesty | Declining to rate yourself highly, by preference. | Not low self-esteem. Check the negative items. |
| Low self-esteem | A genuinely harsh assessment of your own worth. | Worth addressing. Responds to action more than argument. |
| Depression | Worthlessness alongside low mood and lost interest. | Treatable, and a different conversation. See a doctor. |
| How do I tell modesty from the real thing? | Look at the five negatively-worded items rather than the positive ones. A modest person declines to claim they are excellent; they do not usually agree that they are a failure, that they have little to be proud of, or that they are no good at all. Agreement with those is the part that distinguishes a low opinion of yourself from a reluctance to boast. | |
Reading your result
What should you take from the number?
Three things more useful than the total.
- 01 Which items you disagreed with
The specific, not the global
“I am a failure” and “I wish I could have more respect for myself” point at quite different things. The specific item is more actionable than the total and usually more recognisable too.
- 02 Whether something changed
This moves with circumstances
Self-esteem that fell alongside a job, a relationship or a loss is a response to events rather than a fixed trait. That is a materially different situation from a low opinion of yourself that has been stable for years, and it points somewhere different.
- 03 Whether low mood came with it
The overlap with depression
Worthlessness is a symptom of depression as well as a feature of low self-esteem, and the two are often the same conversation with a doctor rather than two separate problems to solve in order.
It cannot diagnose anything, and it cannot distinguish low self-esteem from depression, which share the worthlessness item. It measures a single global self-assessment, so it will not tell you which areas of your life it comes from. And it is a snapshot: taken during a bad month it will read lower than the same person’s stable level, which is a reason to retake it rather than to discount it.
Things people ask early
The questions that come up first
Three worth answering before the detail.
What is a normal self-esteem score?
Between 15 and 25 on the 0–30 scale. Below 15 may indicate problematic low self-esteem. Those figures come from the scale itself rather than from us.
Can self-esteem change?
Yes, and it does so routinely with circumstances. It is not a fixed trait, which is the single most useful thing to know if you scored low.
Is high self-esteem always good?
Secure high self-esteem is. The thing worth distinguishing is self-regard that is high but fragile — strong until criticised, then badly rattled.
What helps
What actually shifts a low score
In rough order of evidence, and the first one is not what most advice suggests.
- 01 / START HERE
Act first, and let the belief follow
Self-esteem responds more reliably to doing things that contradict the belief than to arguing with it directly. Taking on something slightly beyond what you think you can do, and finding you managed, moves it. Telling yourself you are worthwhile usually does not.
- 02 / TREAT THE MOOD IF IT IS THERE
Depression lowers self-esteem
If low mood, lost interest or poor sleep came along with this, the self-esteem is often downstream of the depression rather than the cause of it. Treating the depression is frequently what moves the self-assessment, and it is treatable.
- 03 / SELF-COMPASSION, NOT SELF-PRAISE
A different and better-evidenced target
Treating yourself about as kindly as you would treat a friend in the same position has a stronger evidence base than trying to raise self-esteem directly, and it does not require you to believe anything you find implausible.
Background: The Rosenberg scale, hosted by the University of Maryland. This page is educational and is not medical advice.
What to do next
What should you do with your result?
Three things, whatever the number said.
- 142
Write down the two statements that landed hardest
Those are the specific beliefs, and specific beliefs are what change. A global sense of not being much good is hard to do anything with.
- 02
Note the date and retake it in a month
One score is a snapshot of a particular stretch of time. Two scores show a direction, which is what tells you whether something is helping.
- 03
Separate the mood question from the worth question
If low mood came with this, that is the thing to raise with a doctor first. The self-assessment often follows it up.
There is a difference between judging yourself harshly and feeling that you do not matter, and the second one deserves help rather than a score. If you have been feeling worthless or hopeless, if that has lasted weeks rather than days, or if you have had thoughts of harming yourself, please talk to someone today. In the US you can call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, free and confidential, any time of day. If you are in immediate danger, call 911 or your local emergency number. Elsewhere you can find a line in your own country at findahelpline.com. Persistently low self-esteem is closely tied to depression, which is common and treatable, and a low opinion of yourself is not evidence that help would be wasted on you.
Good questions to ask
Self-esteem test — FAQs
What people actually ask about the Rosenberg scale.
The scale runs 0 to 30. Scores between 15 and 25 are within the normal range, and below 15 may indicate problematic low self-esteem. Those cutoffs come from the scale as published rather than from this page. There is no score you should be aiming at: most people sit in the normal range, and a result there describes a steady sense of your own worth rather than relentless confidence.
Five of the ten items are worded negatively — feeling like a failure, having little to be proud of, feeling useless at times — and are scored in reverse, so agreeing with them lowers your total. This is deliberate. People answer positively-worded statements more generously than negative ones, and mixing the directions stops the scale measuring agreeableness instead of self-esteem.
No, though they overlap enough to be confusing. Worthlessness is a recognised symptom of depression, so someone depressed will often score low here. The difference is that depression also brings low mood, loss of interest, and changes to sleep, appetite and concentration. If those came along with your result, the depression is usually the thing to address first, and the self-assessment frequently improves alongside it.
Yes. It is not a fixed trait and it moves with circumstances, which is the most useful fact available if you scored low. What appears to work is action rather than argument: doing things that contradict the belief, rather than trying to talk yourself out of it. Self-compassion — treating yourself roughly as you would treat a friend in the same position — has a stronger evidence base than attempting to raise self-esteem directly.
Very much so, and the combination is common. Self-esteem is a global sense of worth; imposter feelings are domain-specific and often strongest in capable people with high standards. Scoring well here while privately believing you have fooled everyone at work is not a contradiction. Our Imposter Syndrome Test is the better fit if that is the part you recognise.
Check the negatively-worded items. Modesty shows up as declining to claim you are excellent; it does not usually show up as agreeing that you are a failure, that you have little to be proud of, or that you are no good at all. If you agreed with those, the scale is picking up something more than reluctance to boast.
A month apart is reasonable if you are trying to track a change. A single score is a snapshot and reads lower during a difficult stretch than the same person’s stable level. Two scores show a direction, and direction is the thing worth knowing.
Yes. The test is free, needs no account or sign-up, and your result appears only in your browser. Nothing is sent to us.
The honest answer is that the relationship is correlational and much weaker than popular writing suggests. Self-esteem travels with good outcomes without that establishing which causes which, and decades of programmes aimed at raising it directly produced disappointing results. We therefore describe what the scale measures and avoid claiming what it predicts.
Editorial transparency
Sources and review information
These ten statements are the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. They are not our wording but Rosenberg’s own, reproduced unchanged and scored by the published method, with the cutoffs taken from the scale rather than invented here. Surrounding content is written and reviewed by the PsyMed Editorial Team from the sources listed. We are writers and researchers, not clinicians, and this page is educational rather than diagnostic. Read how we build our tests and who we are.
Research and editorial references
- Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the Adolescent Self-Image. The scale and its scoring instructions are hosted by the Department of Sociology at the University of Maryland, Rosenberg’s own institution — the source for everything this page states about scoring: ten items, four-point agreement, items 3, 5, 8, 9 and 10 reverse-scored, a total of 0–30, and below 15 as possible problematic low self-esteem with 15–25 as the normal range. socy.umd.edu/about-us/using-rosenberg-self-esteem-scale
- We checked the stored scoring on this page against that source before publishing and found it already correct — items reverse-scored as specified and bands at 0–14, 15–25 and 26–30. We mention this because we have found the opposite elsewhere, and checking before correcting is the practice that distinguishes the two cases. psymed.info/category/emotional-and-trait-assessments
- We make no claim on this page about what self-esteem predicts. The association between self-esteem and life outcomes is correlational and contested, and programmes designed to raise it directly have a poor record; describing what the scale measures is defensible, and forecasting from it is not.
- We also publish no prevalence figure for low self-esteem, because none was traced to a primary source we had checked.
A snapshot, not a verdict
This measures how you are judging yourself, not what you are worth.
If you scored low, the useful facts are that it moves, that it responds to what you do more than to what you tell yourself, and that if low mood came with it, that is the thing to raise with a doctor first.
Take the test