Published August 17, 2026. Last updated August 17, 2026.
What percentage of people experience imposter syndrome? The published answer spans 9 percent to 82 percent, from Bravata and colleagues’ 2020 systematic review in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, which pooled 62 studies covering 14,161 participants with the literature searched from January 1966 through May 2018. The width of that span is the finding, because prevalence moves that far according to which questionnaire a study used and where it set the cut-off. This page carries the range, the studies at each end, and the trail behind the circulating 70 percent figure.
Key statistics
- Reported prevalence of imposter syndrome ranges from 9 percent to 82 percent across 62 studies covering 14,161 participants, varying largely with the screening tool and cut-off used, with the literature searched from January 1966 through May 2018 (Bravata et al., 2020).
- Among the same 654 Korean Catholic adults, prevalence measured 24 percent at a Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale cut-off of 62 and 39 percent at a cut-off of 58 (published 1995, no collection year stated) (Chae et al., 1995).
- Among 459 first-year undergraduates at four Vienna universities (published 2017, no collection year stated), 9 percent scored in the “intense” imposter band and 46 percent in “moderate” (Patzak et al., 2017).
- Among 631 Austrian doctoral students, 82 percent registered at least low levels of imposter feelings and 33 percent moderate levels (published 2012, no collection year on record) (Jöstl et al., 2012).
- Among 48 internal medicine residents at one Canadian medical school, 43.8 percent scored as impostors on the Clance Impostor Scale in a 2008 paper stating no collection year (Legassie et al., 2008).
- Clance and Imes’s 1978 paper, which introduced the term, describes work with over 150 highly successful women across the five years before publication, roughly 1973 through 1978, and reports no percentage (Clance & Imes, 1978).
- A nationally representative survey of imposter syndrome prevalence appears among none of the 62 studies in the 2020 review, whose samples are students, clinicians, managers and teachers in nine countries (Bravata et al., 2020).
Cite this page
APA: Eduard, S. (2026, August 17). What percentage of people experience imposter syndrome? What the research reports. StumbleTowardTheLight. https://stumbletowardthelight.com/what-percentage-of-people-experience-imposter-syndrome/
MLA: Eduard, Sebastian. “What Percentage of People Experience Imposter Syndrome? What the Research Reports.” StumbleTowardTheLight, 17 Aug. 2026, stumbletowardthelight.com/what-percentage-of-people-experience-imposter-syndrome/.
The source table
| # | Statistic | Data collected | Source type | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9% to 82% prevalence; 62 studies, 14,161 participants | searched Jan 1966 to May 2018; pub. 2020 | primary study (review) | Bravata et al., 2020 |
| 2 | 24% at Clance cut-off 62, 39% at 58; same 654 Korean adults | not stated; pub. 1995 | primary study (via review) | Chae et al., 1995 |
| 3 | 9% intense, 31% frequent, 46% moderate, 14% few; 459 Vienna undergraduates | not stated; pub. 2017 (online survey) | primary study | Patzak et al., 2017 |
| 4 | 82% at least low levels, 33% moderate; 631 Austrian doctoral students | not stated; pub. 2012 | primary study (via review) | Jöstl et al., 2012 |
| 5 | 43.8% impostors, 12.5% burnout; 48 medicine residents | not stated; pub. 2008 | primary study | Legassie et al., 2008 |
| 6 | Over 150 high-achieving women, one third therapy clients; no percentages reported | roughly 1973-1978 | primary study | Clance & Imes, 1978 |
| 7 | 16 studies found women’s rates higher; 17 found no sex difference | searched Jan 1966 to May 2018; pub. 2020 | primary study (review) | Bravata et al., 2020 |
| 8 | The 70% claim, credited in-text to Gravois (2007) | narrative review, pub. 2011; no original data | derived (circulation trace) | Sakulku & Alexander, 2011 |
| 9 | 70% “for at least some part of their careers” | pub. Nov 9, 2007; research undated beyond “mid-1980s” | derived (circulation trace) | Gravois, 2007, ERIC EJ782339 |
| 10 | Time and Forbes credit the 2011 review; Psychology Today names no source | read August 17, 2026 | derived (circulation trace) | Time; Forbes; Psychology Today |
What percentage of people experience imposter syndrome?
Between 9 percent and 82 percent, depending on where the line gets drawn. Bravata and colleagues screened Medline, Embase and PsycINFO for citations dated January 1966 through May 2018, pulled 62 studies covering 14,161 participants, and reported that prevalence “varied widely from 9 to 82% largely depending on the screening tool and cutoff used to assess symptoms” (Bravata et al., 2020). The review welds a caution to that number in the same sentence: “Few of the included studies were designed to assess the prevalence of impostor syndrome.” A single number that settles self-doubt is something the measurement declines to supply.
What do imposter syndrome statistics actually measure?
They measure scores on a self-report questionnaire, sorted into bands by a threshold each research team picks. The clearest demonstration sits inside the review: Chae, Piedmont, Estadt and Wicks surveyed 654 Korean Catholic adults for a 1995 paper in the Journal of Personality Assessment, and scoring those questionnaires at a Clance scale cut-off of 62 produces a prevalence of 24 percent, with a cut-off of 58 producing 39 percent from the identical answers.
The ends of the published range work the same way. The 9 percent counts only the top band, labeled “intense,” among 459 first-year undergraduates at four Vienna universities, published in 2017 with no collection year stated (Patzak et al., 2017). The 82 percent counts everyone registering at least low levels among 631 Austrian doctoral students. Both are honest readings of their own data, sitting 73 points apart because one counts the severe tail and the other counts anyone who registers at all. The review states the consequence plainly: “There is considerable variation in how researchers interpret specific scores on the impostor syndrome diagnostic scales.” Readers who recognize the feeling more readily than the statistic may get further with the inner critic as a frame.
How common is imposter syndrome at work?
Measured prevalence among working adults runs high in the small studies that exist, and each covers a single profession or a single site. Legassie, Zibrowski and Goldszmidt surveyed internal medicine residents at one Canadian medical school for a 2008 paper in the Journal of General Internal Medicine: 43.8 percent of the 48 respondents scored as impostors on the Clance Impostor Scale, and 12.5 percent met the burnout criteria on the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Legassie et al., 2008). Forty-eight people is a narrow base.
What the 2020 review reports about work is association. Imposter syndrome “is associated with impaired job performance, job satisfaction, and burnout among various employee populations including clinicians,” and association is the full extent of the claim the evidence supports; the review contains no study establishing which of these arrives first. Every sample behind it was recruited through a school, a hospital or a workplace, which is why a single national percentage stays unavailable. The studies split almost evenly on sex, 16 finding women’s rates significantly higher and 17 finding no difference, which is one reason being hard on yourself shows up across a whole staff list.
What did the original imposter syndrome study actually find?
Clance and Imes introduced the term in a 1978 paper in Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, describing their sample in the opening sentence: “In the past five years we have worked in individual psychotherapy, theme-centered interactional groups, and college classes with over 150 highly successful women” (Clance & Imes, 1978). Those five years place the work roughly between 1973 and 1978.
The paper itemizes the groups: 95 undergraduates and 10 PhD faculty women at a small private midwestern college; 15 undergraduates, 20 graduate students and 10 faculty at a large southern urban university; six medical students; and 22 professional women. Those seven figures sum to 178. The women were “primarily white middle- to upper-class women between the ages of 20 and 45.” Approximately one third were therapy clients, and the other two thirds were in growth-oriented interaction groups or classes taught by the authors.
The paper reports no percentage anywhere. The word prevalent appears once, in the abstract, describing the experience as “particularly prevalent and intense among a select sample of high achieving women.” Clance and Imes produced a clinical portrait of a self-selected group of accomplished women who came to them. Every population percentage now in circulation was measured later, which is where self-compassion and self-esteem part company as measurable things.
Where the 70 percent imposter syndrome figure actually leads
Time stated in June 2018 that “an estimated 70% of people experience these impostor feelings at some point in their lives, according to a review article published in the International Journal of Behavioral Science.” Forbes repeated it in May 2023, linking to that same journal. Psychology Today’s page carries it as “around 70 percent of adults may experience impostorism at least once in their lifetime, research suggests,” naming no source.
That review is Sakulku and Alexander’s “The Impostor Phenomenon,” published in 2011. Its sentence reads: “It is estimated that 70% of people will experience at least one episode of this Impostor Phenomenon in their lives (Gravois, 2007)” (Sakulku & Alexander, 2011). The paper is a narrative review and collected no data of its own. Its reference list gives the credited source in full: “Gravois, J. (2007). You’re not fooling anyone. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 54(11), A1,” a feature article in a trade newspaper. Neureiter and Traut-Mattausch’s 2016 paper in Frontiers in Psychology attributes the figure to that same article (Neureiter & Traut-Mattausch, 2016).
The Chronicle article sits behind a subscription. Its ERIC record preserves the sentence the figure came from and dates the work to the mid-1980s: “about 70 percent of people from all walks of life … have felt like impostors for at least some part of their careers” (ERIC record EJ782339). The scope it claims is careers. The versions circulating in 2026 claim lifetimes.
That is where the trail stops on the open web. The ERIC record leaves the mid-1980s study unnamed and the article stays paywalled, so the sample size and the population behind 70 percent remain unavailable to check. Bravata and colleagues’ 2020 review contains no 70 percent figure, which leaves the 9-to-82 range above, each figure carrying its threshold, as the sourced answer. Sitting with that is its own exercise in overcoming self-criticism.
Methodology
Every figure here was traced to the document that first reported it and read there directly. The 2020 systematic review was read in full, and the studies at each end of its range, along with the 1978 origin paper, were read in their own published versions to confirm sample sizes, collection years and score bands. Two figures are carried as reported inside the review, with the origin study named, because those papers sit behind subscriptions. For the 70 percent claim, each citing page was read as it stands today and each citation followed onward until the chain reached a paywalled trade article, at which point the trail is reported as unfinished. Sources last verified September 4, 2026.
Cite this page
APA: Eduard, S. (2026, August 17). What percentage of people experience imposter syndrome? What the research reports. StumbleTowardTheLight. https://stumbletowardthelight.com/what-percentage-of-people-experience-imposter-syndrome/
MLA: Eduard, Sebastian. “What Percentage of People Experience Imposter Syndrome? What the Research Reports.” StumbleTowardTheLight, 17 Aug. 2026, stumbletowardthelight.com/what-percentage-of-people-experience-imposter-syndrome/.
Frequently asked questions
Is the 70 percent imposter syndrome statistic accurate? Its citation trail runs from a 2011 journal review to a 2007 Chronicle of Higher Education feature whose catalogue record dates the underlying research to the mid-1980s and scopes the claim to careers. The 2020 systematic review of 62 studies contains no 70 percent figure.
How many people were in the original 1978 imposter syndrome study? Over 150 high-achieving women, gathered roughly 1973 to 1978, with the itemized groups summing to 178. About one third were therapy clients, and the paper reports no percentage (Clance & Imes, 1978).
How common is imposter syndrome at work? The 2020 review reports it measured among nurses, physicians, residents, managers, teachers and accountants, and associated with impaired job performance, job satisfaction and burnout. One cited example found 43.8 percent of 48 internal medicine residents scoring as impostors (Legassie et al., 2008).
Do women experience imposter syndrome more than men? The evidence splits: 16 studies in the 2020 review found women reporting significantly higher rates, and 17 found no difference (Bravata et al., 2020).
References
Bravata, D. M., Watts, S. A., Keefer, A. L., Madhusudhan, D. K., Taylor, K. T., Clark, D. M., Nelson, R. S., Cokley, K. O., & Hagg, H. K. (2020). Prevalence, predictors, and treatment of impostor syndrome: A systematic review. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 35(4), 1252-1275.
Chae, J. H., Piedmont, R. L., Estadt, B. K., & Wicks, R. J. (1995). Personological evaluation of Clance’s Impostor Phenomenon Scale in a Korean sample. Journal of Personality Assessment, 65(3), 468-485.
Clance, P. R., & Imes, S. A. (1978). The imposter phenomenon in high achieving women: Dynamics and therapeutic intervention. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 15(3), 241-247.
Gravois, J. (2007, November 9). You’re not fooling anyone. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 54(11), A1.
Jöstl, G., Bergsmann, E., Lüftenegger, M., Schober, B., & Spiel, C. (2012). When will they blow my cover? The impostor phenomenon among Austrian doctoral students. Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 220(2), 109-120.
Legassie, J., Zibrowski, E. M., & Goldszmidt, M. A. (2008). Measuring resident well-being: Impostorism and burnout syndrome in residency. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 23(7), 1090-1094.
Neureiter, M., & Traut-Mattausch, E. (2016). An inner barrier to career development: Preconditions of the impostor phenomenon and consequences for career development. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 48.
Patzak, A., Kollmayer, M., & Schober, B. (2017). Buffering impostor feelings with kindness: The mediating role of self-compassion between gender-role orientation and the impostor phenomenon. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1289.
Sakulku, J., & Alexander, J. (2011). The impostor phenomenon. International Journal of Behavioral Science, 6(1), 73-92.