WHO-5: the world's shortest wellbeing test — how it works and when to take it
5 questions, 1 minute, validated in hundreds of clinical studies. We explain where the WHO-5 comes from, what a score below 13 means and why it only asks about good things.
Most mental-health tests ask about symptoms: sadness, anxiety, insomnia. The WHO-5 does the opposite — it asks about five positive experiences from the last two weeks: good spirits, calm, energy, waking up rested, and a daily life full of interesting things.
Where it comes from
The scale was created in the 1990s at the WHO as a quick indicator of patients' wellbeing. Since then it has been validated in hundreds of studies (review: Topp et al., 2015) and is used everywhere from GP offices to population studies. Its phenomenon is the length-to-reliability ratio: 5 questions that genuinely measure something.
How to read the score
A total (0–25) below 13 means lowered wellbeing — enough that a closer screen is worthwhile, e.g. the PHQ-9 depression test. It is not a diagnosis: it is a smoke detector saying "look into this". A high score? Great — you have a baseline for the future.
Why positive questions make sense
Asking about the presence of good is less burdensome than asking about the presence of bad — which is why the WHO-5 works well as a regular check-in every few weeks. A drop in the score shows up earlier than we would admit to ourselves that something is off.
One minute for five questions — the cheapest mental-health monitoring there is.
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