Five questions, thirty seconds. The most widely used short measure of subjective wellbeing.
5 questions across 1 scale, about 2 minutes|Published scoring key from WHO-5 Well-Being Index, not invented
Authors: WHO Collaborating Centre in Mental Health, Hillerød (1998)
Licence: Free to use and reproduce for non-commercial purposes with attribution
Subjective wellbeing across the last two weeks.
High. You have had energy, rest and interest in your days more often than not.
Low. Energy, rest and interest have been in short supply over the last fortnight.
Question 1 of 5
Over the last two weeks…
I have felt cheerful and in good spirits.
The WHO-5 was developed by the WHO Collaborating Centre in Mental Health in Hillerod and has since been translated into more than thirty languages. Five statements, each rated for how much of the last fortnight it was true.
Its unusual feature is that every item is positively worded. There is no question about symptoms, hopelessness or anything a respondent would rather not admit to, which is part of why people answer it honestly and why it works as a first screen in general practice.
It is used as a screening instrument and an outcome measure, not as a diagnostic one, and the thresholds below should be read in that light.
5 answers
Each answer you give is a number on the published response scale.
One scale
Answers belonging to the same scale are added together.
A band
Each total is read against the bands printed for that scale.
Each of the five items scores 0-5, giving a raw total from 0 to 25. The conventional reported figure multiplies that by 4 for a 0-100 scale. Nothing is reverse-keyed.
Scoring runs in your browser from your own answers. It is deterministic, so the same answers always produce the same result, and no part of it is generated, estimated or inferred.
Scoring is simple enough to check by hand: five items at 0-5 give a raw total of 0-25, which is multiplied by 4 for the conventional 0-100 figure.
Two thresholds appear throughout the literature. A score below 50 indicates reduced wellbeing and is a reason to look at sleep, load and what the fortnight actually contained. A score below 29 is the point at which following up with a clinician is recommended.
Because it covers only two weeks, one bad fortnight produces a low score in somebody who is generally fine. A single reading is weak evidence; two readings a fortnight apart are considerably stronger.
Worth taking if
Not the right tool for
A screening questionnaire, not a diagnosis. It cannot identify a condition and was not designed to.
It covers two weeks. A rough fortnight produces a low score in someone who is generally fine.
The items are transparent, so the score is easy to move deliberately in either direction.
This is a self-assessment questionnaire, not a diagnostic instrument and not medical advice.
5 questions, about 2 minutes. Your answers are scored on this device and stored on this device. There is no account to create and nothing is sent to a server. Progress saves as you go, so a long assessment can be finished across more than one sitting.
No sign up, ever. Every item in this assessment comes from WHO-5 Well-Being Index, and the page above tells you exactly how each score is worked out before you answer anything.
Subjective wellbeing over the last two weeks: mood, calm, energy, rest and interest in daily life. It does not ask about symptoms.
On the 0-100 scale, 50 and above is the usual range. Below 50 indicates reduced wellbeing and below 29 is the threshold at which clinical follow-up is recommended.
No. It is a screening result. It says the period is worth a closer look, not that you have a condition. Diagnosis happens with a clinician.
Under two minutes. Five statements, each rated for how much of the last fortnight it was true, making it the shortest assessment on this site.
Yes, for non-commercial use with attribution to the WHO Collaborating Centre in Mental Health.
Standard five-item English version; scoring (0-5 per item, x4) per the WHO-5 user guide. Check the source.