CES-D: Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression ScaleCES-D
~5 min · 20 questions · Free partial report
This test contains sensitive content. Results are private and not shared with employers unless you explicitly consent.
Twenty statements about the past week: on how many days you felt sad, slept restlessly, could not get going, or felt happy and enjoyed life. The CES-D was developed in 1977 by Lenore Radloff at the National Institute of Mental Health for household surveys of the general population, and it became the standard depression screener of epidemiologic research: five decades of cohort studies report their results on this 0 to 60 scale. It asks about frequency of symptoms, counted in days over a single week, and it deliberately includes four positive affect items, something the PHQ family does not have. A score of 16 or more counts as a positive screen in the classic literature. The result is a screening signal, never a diagnosis.
Twenty questions about the last seven days, scored 0 to 60 against the cutoff five decades of population research have used.
- Measure your current depressive symptoms the way population research has measured them since 1977: how often each of 20 experiences occurred during the past week, including the presence or absence of positive feelings. You get a 0 to 60 score placed against the classic screening cutoff of 16, plus a qualitative reading of the four symptom groups Radloff described: depressed affect, positive affect, somatic complaints, and interpersonal difficulties.
No signup required to start. The Partial Report is free at the end. The Complete costs $9.90, if and when you want it.
What this test measures
Depressive symptoms
How often, over the past week, the feelings and behaviours associated with depression showed up: low mood, loss of pleasure, changes in sleep and appetite, effort in ordinary tasks, and how other people felt to be around. A frequency total over 20 items, read as a screening result and never as a diagnosis.
Below the screening cutoff
At or above the screening cutoff
Your result falls into one of these bands.
Discover where you stand on each dimension.
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From first click to report.
The process is simple: you respond, the system calculates, and the result appears. No prior signup, no form, no waiting.
- 1
Click "Start for free"
No signup required to start. You identify yourself at the end, when you want to save the result. The test opens immediately.
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Answer the questions
Likert 4-point frequency scale (Rarely or none of the time to Most or all of the time). Visible progress bar. You can pause and resume from any device after identifying yourself.
- 3
Get the Partial Report
Immediate and free. A text summary of each dimension, with indication of high, medium, or low.
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The Partial already delivers value. The Complete adds percentiles, norm comparison, charts, applied recommendations, and a verifiable Certificate.
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| Free and paid, side by side | Partial Report (free, always) | Complete Report ($9.90) |
|---|---|---|
| Interpretive text per dimension, generated from your answers | ✓ | ✓ |
| Raw score for each dimension | ✓ | ✓ |
| One-paragraph overview reading | ✓ | ✓ |
| Everything in the Partial, expanded to 3–5 paragraphs per dimension | — | ✓ |
| Percentile per dimension, compared to reference norms | — | ✓ |
| Inter-dimensional chart with accessible data table | — | ✓ |
| Applied recommendations: career, relationships, self-care | — | ✓ |
| Certificate with public verification and PDF download | — | ✓ |
- ✓Everything in the Partial, expanded to 3–5 paragraphs per dimension
- ✓Percentile per dimension, compared to reference norms
- ✓Applied recommendations: career, relationships, self-care
- ✓Certificate with public verification and PDF download
You only pay after completing the test, if you want to go beyond the Partial.
- ✓Interpretive text per dimension, generated from your answers
- ✓Raw score for each dimension
- ✓One-paragraph overview reading
- ✓Free trial of the Integrative Chat, unlocked by your first test
Payment via PIX (instant) or credit card. Access for 1 year. After that, the report stays visible in read-only mode.
Why trust this instrument.
The CES-D (Radloff, 1977) measures the frequency of depressive symptoms over a single week: 20 statements answered on a 4-point frequency scale counted in days, each scored 0 to 3, for a total of 0 to 60. Four items are worded positively (feeling as good as other people, hopeful, happy, enjoying life) and are reverse scored, so the absence of positive feeling raises the total the same way the presence of sadness does. Internal consistency is about 0.85 in the general population and 0.90 in clinical samples; retest correlations of 0.45 to 0.70 are expected by design, because the scale measures a current state rather than a trait. The score is read against the classic published threshold of 16, which a meta-analysis of 28 studies places at sensitivity 0.87 and specificity 0.70 against clinical diagnosis. No sub-band above 16 is used: the literature that subdivides it has no verified primary source. The four factors Radloff described are reported as qualitative reading, never as separate scores. The English items are the NIMH scale sheet verbatim; Portuguese, Spanish, French, German and Italian are NOESIS's own translations.
- Authors:
- Radloff
- Year:
- 1977
- Range
- α 0.85 – 0.85(1 scales)
- Average
- α 0.85(good)
Cronbach's alpha. Values above .70 are acceptable; above .80, good.
- Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D Scale: A Self-Report Depression Scale for Research in the General Population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1(3), 385-401.
The theory behind this test.
Epidemiologic Depression Symptomatology
Framework for measuring current depressive symptomatology in the general population, developed at the NIMH Center for Epidemiologic Studies (Radloff, 1977). Depression is operationalized as the frequency of symptoms over a single week — emphasizing the affective component (depressed mood) — rather than as a clinical diagnosis: items were selected from previously validated scales to cover the major symptom components, including the deliberate measurement of positive affect, whose absence is part of depression that pure symptom lists miss. The measured state is expected to move with life events; scores are read against published screening cutoffs, never as diagnostic categories.
Learn more about this theory →Target Audience
Adults who want a research-grade check on their mood in the last week, whether as a one-time screen or as a number to re-measure over time.
Recommended ages: 18+
Questions the report answers.
How often were depressive symptoms part of your week?
Read the score as a count of symptom frequency across 20 experiences of the past week, from restless sleep to rarely feeling happy. Below 16 sits with the majority of the general population in the classic data. From 16 up, the frequency resembles what five decades of studies treat as a positive screen: a signal worth checking with a professional, not a diagnosis. The score is built to move; measuring again after a few weeks tells you more than any single measurement.
Who benefits most.
Someone whose low weeks have started to blur together
When every week feels vaguely gray, memory is a poor instrument. Twenty questions about the last seven days turn "I have been off lately" into a number that can be compared with the next week's number.
A person in therapy who wants a tracking number
Between sessions it is hard to say whether things moved. The CES-D was built for repeated measurement, and its score is sensitive to change: in the original data, patients who recovered dropped about 20 points in a month.
Someone who took the PHQ-9 and wants a second angle
Severity against DSM criteria is one lens. Frequency in days, with the absence of joy counted alongside the presence of sadness, is another. Where the two agree, that is worth trusting; where they differ, that is worth exploring.
Frequently asked questions
Is this a diagnosis of depression?
No. The CES-D is a screening instrument: it counts how often depressive symptoms occurred in your week, and a score at or above 16 means your symptom frequency resembles what studies treat as a positive screen. Radloff herself called that threshold arbitrary. A diagnosis of depression requires a clinical evaluation by a professional, which no questionnaire replaces.
How is this different from the PHQ-9?
Three ways. The PHQ-9 maps the nine DSM criteria over a two-week window and measures severity; the CES-D covers a single week, asks on how many days each symptom occurred, and includes four positive affect items the PHQ family leaves out. The PHQ-9 is the standard of clinical practice; the CES-D is the standard of population research, the scale behind most epidemiologic surveys since 1977. Taking both gives two angles on the same terrain.
What does a score of 16 mean?
It is the classic cutoff, published with the scale in 1977: in Radloff's data, 70% of psychiatric patients scored at or above 16 against 21% of the general population. A 2016 meta-analysis of 28 studies found sensitivity of 0.87 and specificity of 0.70 at that threshold, and noted that a cutoff of 20 produces fewer false positives. Crossing 16 is a reason to pay attention and consider talking to a professional, not a verdict.
Why does it ask whether I was happy or enjoyed life?
Four items are worded positively on purpose: feeling as good as other people, feeling hopeful, being happy, enjoying life. Radloff included them to break automatic answering patterns and to measure the absence of positive feeling, which is a part of depression that pure symptom lists miss. They are scored in reverse, so rarely being happy raises the score the same way often feeling sad does.
Why only one week? My mood changes all the time.
That is the design. The CES-D measures a current state, not a stable trait: retest correlations sit between 0.45 and 0.70 precisely because the state moves with life events. The short window is what makes re-measurement meaningful. In Radloff's treatment data, recovered patients dropped around 20 points in four weeks. Take it now, and again after something changes.
Who can see my results?
This test is flagged as sensitive in NOESIS. Your results belong to you. If you ever take it inside a corporate program, individual results of sensitive tests are never shown to your employer without your explicit per-test consent, which defaults to off. That is a platform rule, not a courtesy.
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No signup, no time limit. The Partial is free at the end.
The Complete costs $9.90, if and when you want it.
This test is a self-knowledge tool for informational purposes. It does not constitute a psychological or clinical diagnosis and does not replace evaluation by a qualified professional. The report indicates the AI model used in text generation.
The CES-D was developed by Lenore Sawyer Radloff at the Center for Epidemiologic Studies, National Institute of Mental Health, and is a work of the United States government in the public domain (17 U.S.C. Sec. 105). APA statement: "The CES-D is in the public domain and no permission is required for use." The English items are reproduced verbatim from the NIMH scale sheet; the Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, and Italian versions are NOESIS's own translations.