Average self-esteem score: Rosenberg norms for Korean adults and how to read yours

The most widely used self-esteem measure is the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965). Five of its ten statements affirm you, such as “I can see several good qualities in myself,” and five put you down, such as “At times I honestly feel useless.” The mind.io self-esteem test uses these ten items and shows a score from 0 to 30. Once you have a score, it is natural to wonder what other people usually get.

The Korean Welfare Panel Study surveys the same people from a national sample of households every year, and it includes the Rosenberg scale. Yoo (2018) analyzed this panel; moved roughly onto mind.io’s scale, the averages in its tables for Korean adults by age group in 2006 and 2015 come to about 18 to 22 points. In mind.io’s three result ranges, that is the middle one (15 to 25).

This guide covers the averages by age group, how to compare your own score, how the averages differ by age, why the scale is worth reading in two directions, and what to keep in mind when reading the numbers.

The Korean Welfare Panel draws households by two-stage stratified cluster sampling to represent the whole country, then sets its final sample by dividing low-income and general households. Yoo (2018) analyzed ten years of the panel, from wave 1 (2006) to wave 10 (2015): 4,781 people aged 20 to 39, 4,629 aged 40 to 59 and 4,735 aged 60 and over.

The study splits the ten Rosenberg items into five positive and five negative ones and prints the mean answer per item, from “not at all” (1) to “always” (4). In 2006 the positive-items mean was 2.88 for ages 20 to 39, 2.76 for ages 40 to 59 and 2.52 for ages 60 and over, and the negative-items mean was 1.69, 1.77 and 1.82. A higher negative-items mean means agreeing more often with self-deprecating thoughts.

Among those in the same cohorts who still answered nine years later, in 2015, the positive-items means were 2.91, 2.73 and 2.43, and the negative-items means 1.55, 1.65 and 1.75. Age groups are set by age in 2006. The table below shows both years’ means and the values moved onto mind.io’s scale.

The mind.io self-esteem test scores each item from “strongly agree” (3) to “strongly disagree” (0), reverses the five negative items and adds them up to a score from 0 to 30. On the result page, self-regard is how much you agreed with the five positive items (0 to 15), and the self-critical voice is how much you agreed with the five negative items (0 to 15).

Moving the panel’s 1 to 4 down one step onto mind.io’s 0 to 3, the 2006 average for ages 20 to 39 comes to 9.4 for self-regard, 3.45 for the self-critical voice and about 21 in total. The same way, ages 40 to 59 come to about 20 and ages 60 and over to about 19, and in 2015 to about 22, 20 and 18. So this panel’s adults averaged roughly 18 to 22 points by age group.

The answer labels differ slightly, though. The panel’s scale ends at “always,” closer to how often something is true, while mind.io’s ends at “strongly agree,” asking how much you agree. The item translations differ too, so a point or two of difference means little. mind.io’s three result ranges (0 to 14, 15 to 25 and 26 to 30) are also only a reading aid, not clinical cut-offs.

In the 2006 data, the older the group, the lower the positive-items mean (2.88, 2.76, 2.52) and the higher the negative-items mean (1.69, 1.77, 1.82). The author points to higher depression scores and longer treatment for chronic illness in midlife and later life as part of why the positive-items mean was lower there.

In the analysis that weighs several conditions together, in all three age groups people with a job, more education or more satisfying family relationships had higher positive and lower negative self-esteem. People with more depression or longer treatment for a chronic illness had lower positive and higher negative self-esteem. These things went together; the study does not show which causes which.

In the same analysis, with other conditions held equal, from age 40 women had higher positive and lower negative self-esteem than men, while at ages 20 to 39 women’s positive self-esteem was slightly lower. Since these conditions made a difference within the same age group too, an average is best read only as a starting point.

The study reports that the data fit better when the positive and negative items are read as two strands than when all ten are read as a single score. In all three age groups the two-factor model fit better (CFI about .90) than the one-factor model (.67 to .73).

This can be read as the two strands not always moving in opposite directions. You can know your good qualities well and still be hard on yourself at times, or both sides can be quiet. That is why the mind.io result page shows the two directions separately next to the total. Two people with the same total may benefit from different practices depending on which side is high or low. If your self-critical voice is loud, read self-compassion versus self-esteem; to build self-regard, read how to build self-esteem.

The table gives the means exactly as printed, and the paper does not say whether the panel’s weights, needed because low-income and general households were drawn separately, were applied. So the figures are better read as a rough reference point from a large national panel than as the exact average of all Korean adults.

Age groups are set by age in 2006, so the 2015 values are the means of those in the same cohorts who still answered nine years later. Over that time the respondents per age group fell from 4,543–4,625 to 2,016–2,807, so the traits of those who kept answering may have shaped the figures. The data are from 2006 and 2015 and may differ from today’s averages.

An average is a point of comparison, not a goal. Self-esteem rises and falls with recent events, relationships and how you feel, so the trend over retakes a few weeks apart tells you more than a single score.

Q. What is the average self-esteem score? A. Moved roughly onto mind.io’s 0 to 30, the Korean Welfare Panel’s adult data put the average by age group at about 18 to 22 points. In 2006 it was about 21 for ages 20 to 39, about 20 for ages 40 to 59 and about 19 for ages 60 and over.

Q. How does this relate to Rosenberg scores out of 40? A. Scoring the four answers 1 to 4 gives 10 to 40; scoring them 0 to 3, as mind.io does, gives 0 to 30. Subtract 10 from a score out of 40 to put it on mind.io’s scale.

Q. Is a score below average a problem? A. No. An average pools many people, so plenty of people score below it. If your view of yourself has felt heavy for weeks and daily life is hard to manage, though, talk to someone you trust or a professional counselor.

Q. Does self-esteem fall with age? A. In this data, the older the group, the lower the positive-items mean. This compares age groups, so it does not show that each person’s self-esteem falls as they age. Within the same age group, people also differed with conditions such as work, family relationships and health.

References: Yoo (2018), A Decade of Changes in Two Dimensional Self Esteem: A Life Course Perspective (in Korean), Health and Social Welfare Review 38(3), 7-44, https://doi.org/10.15709/hswr.2018.38.3.7; Rosenberg, M. (1965), Society and the adolescent self-image, Princeton University Press.