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Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) Test and Scoring Calculator

How is the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory scored?

Each answer scores 100, 75, 50, 25 or 0 (Always / To a very high degree = 100, down to Never / To a very low degree = 0). One work item, about having enough energy for family and friends, is reversed. Each scale score is the average of the items answered, from 0 to 100. Many studies treat 50 or more as high burnout.

The CBI is the burnout questionnaire you can actually use: its Danish authors allow free use, commercial included, as long as the source is cited. That is not true of the best-known alternative, which is sold per copy.

Answer the 19 questions to see your own three scores, or paste coded answers for a team or a study sample and get every respondent's scores with the group means.

Use the calculator All free tools

Built by Muhammad Shahzeb Anwar, MSc Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Burnout and work strain are central topics in occupational health psychology.

The calculator

The questionnaire

Runs in your browser. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere.

Answer for how things have been lately. Your answers stay in this page and are not saved or sent.

Personal burnout

Work-related burnout

Scoring a team or a study sample

Code 1 = the first answer listed (Always / To a very high degree) up to 5 = the last (Never / To a very low degree). Use - for a missing answer; leave all six client items as - if the scale was not used. Item 13 is reversed for you. Example rows are filled in.

Three scales, and why they are separate

Personal burnout (6 items) asks about exhaustion in general, whatever its cause. Work-related burnout (7 items) asks how much of it the person puts down to work. Client-related burnout (6 items) asks about exhaustion from working with people: clients, patients, pupils, customers. Kristensen and colleagues designed the scales to be used separately, so someone who does not work with clients simply skips the third.

Scoring follows the official scale sheet from the Danish National Research Centre for the Working Environment (NFA): each answer is 100, 75, 50, 25 or 0, the scale score is the mean of the items answered, and a respondent with fewer than three answers on the personal or client scale, or fewer than four on the work scale, is not scored.

Worked example

A respondent answers the six personal items Always, Often, Sometimes, Seldom, Never and Often: 100 + 75 + 50 + 25 + 0 + 75 = 325, divided by 6 = 54.2. On the work scale they answer "to a high degree" to the first three and "often" to the next, "sometimes" and "seldom" to the next two, and "always" to having enough energy for family and friends. That last item is reversed, so "always" scores 0: (75 x 4 + 50 + 25 + 0) / 7 = 53.6. This is respondent R1 in the paste box.

What the score means

The CBI was built to measure exhaustion, the core of burnout, rather than to diagnose anything. The authors published no clinical cut-off. Later studies often call 50 or more "high" (on average, answers at "sometimes" or above), and some use bands at 25, 50 and 75. For a team, the useful numbers are the mean, the spread and the share above 50, compared over time or between units, not one person's label.

In the original paper the items are mixed with other questions in the survey rather than shown in blocks, to avoid stereotyped answers. If you run the CBI in your own survey, you can do the same.

Before you rely on this

What this will not tell you

This is a self-report questionnaire, not a medical or psychological diagnosis, and it measures exhaustion only. The bands are conventions from later research, not official norms. For a team survey, keep responses anonymous and report groups of at least five people. Nothing you enter leaves your browser and nothing is saved.

Questions

Questions people actually ask

Is the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory free to use?

Yes. The NFA states that it may be used freely for non-commercial and commercial purposes, provided Borritz et al. (2006) in the Scandinavian Journal of Public Health is clearly cited.

How many items does the CBI have?

19: six for personal burnout, seven for work-related burnout and six for client-related burnout.

What is a high score on the CBI?

The authors set no official cut-off. Many studies treat 50 or more as high burnout, meaning answers averaged at "sometimes" or "somewhat" or above.

Which CBI item is reverse scored?

The last work-related item, "Do you have enough energy for family and friends during leisure time?", so "always" scores 0 and "never" scores 100.

What is the difference between the CBI and the Maslach Burnout Inventory?

The Maslach inventory measures exhaustion, depersonalisation and personal accomplishment and is a licensed, paid instrument. The CBI focuses on exhaustion, splits it by its source, and is free to use with citation.

Can I use the CBI in my thesis?

Yes, with the citation the authors ask for. Report which scales you used, the scoring rule and the reliability (Cronbach's alpha) in your sample.

The instrument and its terms

Sources

Items and scoring are reproduced from the NFA scale sheet under the NFA's free-use terms, which ask for this citation: Borritz M et al. Burnout among employees in human service work: design and baseline findings of the PUMA study. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 2006; 34: 49-58. Checked on 2 November 2026.

  1. NFA (Danish National Research Centre for the Working Environment): Copenhagen Burnout Inventory, terms of use: https://nfa.dk/vaerktoejer/spoergeskemaer/spoergeskema-til-maaling-af-udbraendthed-cbi/copenhagen-burnout-inventory-cbi
  2. NFA: CBI scales, English version used in the PUMA study (items and scoring): https://nfa.dk/media/a4wheblj/cbi-scales.pdf
  3. Borritz, M., et al. (2006). Burnout among employees in human service work: design and baseline findings of the PUMA study. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 34(1), 49-58: https://doi.org/10.1080/14034940510032275
  4. 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: https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370500297720
Citation

Cite this tool

Free to use and free to quote. If a figure here is useful in something you are writing, a link back is all that is asked.

Muhammad Shahzeb Anwar, MSc Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) Calculator. Shahzeb Speaks. https://www.shahzebspeaks.com/copenhagen-burnout-inventory-calculator/

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