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BURNOUT · COPENHAGEN BURNOUT INVENTORY

Free Burnout Test

How exhausted you are, and how much of it you connect to your work. Thirteen questions, about three minutes, from a burnout measure published in full by its authors — with their own cut-off, and never a diagnosis.

What a burnout test measures

A burnout test measures prolonged physical and psychological exhaustion and how much of it a person attributes to their work. This test administers the personal and work-related scales of the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI; Kristensen et al., 2005), each scored from 0 to 100, with the authors' line of 50 marking a high degree of burnout. It measures a changeable state, not a personality trait or a medical diagnosis.

The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory takes a deliberately narrow view of burnout. Its authors define the core of it as fatigue and exhaustion, and add one idea that makes it more than a tiredness scale: attribution. The same exhaustion means something different when a person connects it to their job than when they connect it to illness, caring for someone, or a hard year — so the instrument asks about both, separately.

The two scales

Both run 0–100. The definitions are the authors' own.

Work-related burnout

7 ITEMS

Work-related burnout is a state of prolonged physical and psychological exhaustion, which is perceived as related to the person’s work.

Personal burnout

6 ITEMS

Personal burnout is a state of prolonged physical and psychological exhaustion.

One line, not five bands

The authors define a high degree of burnout as 50 points or more. That is the only cut-off they published. Many burnout pages sort scores into mild, moderate, severe, and extreme; those bands do not appear in the source documents, so this test does not use them. In the authors' study of Danish human-service workers, 19.8% were at or above the line on work-related burnout.

There is no percentile either. Personal burnout is compared with a representative sample of 1,186 employed Danish adults aged 20–59, and work-related burnout with 1,910 Danish human-service workers in the PUMA study (83% women). Both comparisons are named wherever they appear, and neither is a norm for the people taking this test today.

What is free and what the report adds

Your work-related burnout score, its likely range, and where it sits against the authors' line are free, along with the methodology, the sources, and where to turn if the result worries you. The advanced report adds your personal burnout score and reads the two against each other — the comparison the instrument was designed for — with the reference points from the authors' study and an AI reflection module.

The limits worth knowing

This measures a state, not a trait. The authors followed workers for three years and found scores moving by five points or more in both directions, so a result is a reading of now. It is also self-report: it measures where you place your tiredness, not what caused it.

And it is not a diagnosis. Burnout is an occupational phenomenon in ICD-11, not a medical condition, but exhaustion overlaps with conditions that are medical. Tiredness that has lasted for weeks, affects your sleep or health, or does not lift with rest is worth taking to a doctor whatever your score.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Burnout questions, answered

Can this test tell me whether I have burnout?

It can tell you how exhausted you are and how much of that you connect to your work, on a 0 to 100 scale, and whether your work-related score reaches the line of 50 that the instrument's authors use for a high degree of burnout. It cannot diagnose anything. Burnout is classified in ICD-11 as an occupational phenomenon rather than a medical condition, and exhaustion can overlap with conditions that are medical, such as depression or thyroid problems, which only a clinician can tell apart.

Why is 50 the cut-off?

Because it is the one the authors published: their normative document defines a high degree of burnout as 50 points or more. In their study of nearly two thousand Danish human-service workers, about one in five were at or above it on the work-related scale. Sites that sort scores into mild, moderate, and severe bands are using lines that do not appear in the source documents, so this test does not use them. If your likely range straddles 50, the result says you are near the line rather than picking a side.

Why is this not the Maslach Burnout Inventory?

The MBI is the best-known burnout measure and a commercial instrument whose items are sold rather than published. The CBI was developed by Danish researchers partly in response to it, with public funds and a policy of sharing it free of charge, and its items are printed in full by the authors' institution. The two also define burnout differently: the MBI includes cynicism and reduced accomplishment, while the CBI measures fatigue and exhaustion and where the person attributes them. Scores on one do not convert to the other.

Why are there only two scales when the CBI has three?

The third scale, client-related burnout, asks about working with clients, patients, students, or similar, and its authors define it only for people whose work involves them. Asking everyone those questions would produce a score that does not apply to most respondents. The authors say each scale can be used on its own and that using only one or two is often the meaningful choice; this test uses the personal and work-related scales, which apply to anyone in paid work.

Will my score change if I take it again?

It may, and that is the point. The authors followed workers for three years and found that many moved by five points or more in either direction; they conclude the scales measure degrees of burnout that change, not stable traits. Retake in a comparable week rather than the day after a deadline, and read a change smaller than the likely range on your result as no change.

Should my employer see this result?

Only if you choose to share it, and it should not be used to make decisions about you. The CBI was built for research and workplace surveys reported at group level; it is not validated for selection, performance review, or fitness-for-work decisions. A result you share is yours to explain.

SOURCES

Where this test comes from

  1. [1]
    Kristensen, T. S., Borritz, M., Villadsen, E., & Christensen, K. B. (2005). The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory: A new tool for the assessment of burnout. Work & Stress, 19(3), 192–207. ↗

    The paper that introduces the instrument: its three scales, its definition of burnout as fatigue and exhaustion attributed to a domain, the reliabilities (alpha .85–.87), the average scores for fifteen jobs, and the three-year follow-up showing that scores change in both directions.

  2. [2]
    National Research Centre for the Working Environment (NFA). Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (English version) used in the PUMA study. ↗

    The authors' institution's distribution of the questionnaire, and the text this implementation reproduces: every item, both response formats, the 0–100 scoring, and the one reversed item. It also recommends mixing the questions rather than printing them grouped, which is why the two scales are interleaved here.

  3. [3]
    Borritz, M., & Kristensen, T. S. (2004). Copenhagen Burnout Inventory: Normative data from a representative Danish population on Personal Burnout and results from the PUMA study. ↗

    The source of the 50-point line for a high degree of burnout and of every reference value shown: personal burnout in 1,186 employed Danish adults (mean 31.7, SD 14.8, alpha .78) and work-related burnout in 1,910 PUMA human-service workers (mean 33.0, SD 17.7, alpha .87).

  4. [4]
    World Health Organization (2019). Burn-out an “occupational phenomenon”: International Classification of Diseases. ↗

    Why this site describes burnout as an occupational phenomenon rather than a medical condition. ICD-11 also defines burnout by three dimensions, of which the CBI deliberately measures one: exhaustion.