FILE: ARCH-NUM-008  /  STATUS: PUBLISHED

    THE NUMBERS / THE STACKS

    Impostor syndrome statistics, each one read in its source

    Pick a number, open its source, and check it yourself. Every number below links to the text it came from.

    LAST CHECKED: OCTOBER 10, 2026

    Every number here was read in its source on October 8, 2026, and links to it.

    Each number below was read at source. We opened each paper or page on October 8, 2026. A number stayed only if it was in that text.

    Counts are the source's own. We did not round, convert or combine them. Impostor feelings are a feeling, not a label this page gives anyone.

    How common it is

    1. 9 to 82%

      Range of estimates across published studies of how many people report impostor feelings, by questionnaire and cutoff.

      Prevalence, Predictors, and Treatment of Impostor Syndrome: a Systematic Review. Bravata, Watts, Keefer, Madhusudhan, Taylor, Clark, Nelson, Cokley and Hagg, 2020. Journal of General Internal Medicine. Open the paper

    2. 62

      Studies, with 14,161 people, in the review behind that range.

      Prevalence, Predictors, and Treatment of Impostor Syndrome: a Systematic Review. Bravata, Watts, Keefer, Madhusudhan, Taylor, Clark, Nelson, Cokley and Hagg, 2020. Journal of General Internal Medicine. Open the paper

    3. half

      Share of those studies published in the six years before the review.

      Prevalence, Predictors, and Treatment of Impostor Syndrome: a Systematic Review. Bravata, Watts, Keefer, Madhusudhan, Taylor, Clark, Nelson, Cokley and Hagg, 2020. Journal of General Internal Medicine. Open the paper

    Executive women

    1. 750

      Executive women, one or two steps from the top job, polled by an audit firm.

      Study Finds 75% of Female Execs Experience Imposter Syndrome. Los Angeles Business Journal, 2023. Open the page Reports: KPMG's report Advancing the Future of Women in Business, a poll of 750 executive women who had attended its Women's Leadership Summit. We read the news page, not the report.

    2. Seventy-five percent

      Share of them who said they had felt it at some point in their careers.

      Study Finds 75% of Female Execs Experience Imposter Syndrome. Los Angeles Business Journal, 2023. Open the page Reports: KPMG's report Advancing the Future of Women in Business, a poll of 750 executive women who had attended its Women's Leadership Summit. We read the news page, not the report.

    3. Eighty-one percent

      Share who said they put more pressure on themselves not to fail than men do.

      Study Finds 75% of Female Execs Experience Imposter Syndrome. Los Angeles Business Journal, 2023. Open the page Reports: KPMG's report Advancing the Future of Women in Business, a poll of 750 executive women who had attended its Women's Leadership Summit. We read the news page, not the report.

    4. 47%

      Share who said their self-doubt came from never expecting to reach the level they had.

      Study Finds 75% of Female Execs Experience Imposter Syndrome. Los Angeles Business Journal, 2023. Open the page Reports: KPMG's report Advancing the Future of Women in Business, a poll of 750 executive women who had attended its Women's Leadership Summit. We read the news page, not the report.

    5. 72%

      Share who turned to a mentor or trusted adviser when doubting themselves in a new role.

      Study Finds 75% of Female Execs Experience Imposter Syndrome. Los Angeles Business Journal, 2023. Open the page Reports: KPMG's report Advancing the Future of Women in Business, a poll of 750 executive women who had attended its Women's Leadership Summit. We read the news page, not the report.

    Women and men

    1. 108

      Studies pooled in a review that found women scoring higher than men on impostor measures.

      Meta-analysis of 108 studies confirms women experience impostor syndrome more frequently and intensely. PsyPost, 2024. Open the page Reports: A meta-analysis in Current Research in Behavioral Sciences. We read the news page, not the paper.

    2. 0.27

      The average gap, a small to moderate difference, with more than 42,000 people in the data.

      Meta-analysis of 108 studies confirms women experience impostor syndrome more frequently and intensely. PsyPost, 2024. Open the page Reports: A meta-analysis in Current Research in Behavioral Sciences. We read the news page, not the paper.

    Numbers that get repeated

    • “70% of people experience impostor syndrome”

      The review we read found no one figure. Estimates ran from 9 to 82%, depending on the questionnaire and the cutoff each study used.

      Prevalence, Predictors, and Treatment of Impostor Syndrome: a Systematic Review. Bravata, Watts, Keefer, Madhusudhan, Taylor, Clark, Nelson, Cokley and Hagg, 2020. Journal of General Internal Medicine. Open the paper

    • “62% of people experience impostor syndrome”

      We could not find a study behind this figure in the records we read. The page it is credited to could not be opened.

    • “75% of women executives have impostor syndrome”

      The record we read says 750 executive women who had attended one firm's summit were polled. It is a count of them, not of women executives in general.

      Study Finds 75% of Female Execs Experience Imposter Syndrome. Los Angeles Business Journal, 2023. Open the page Reports: KPMG's report Advancing the Future of Women in Business, a poll of 750 executive women who had attended its Women's Leadership Summit. We read the news page, not the report.

    How we checked

    A runner opened each source on October 8, 2026, and saved what it read. A number appears here only if it sits in that saved text, word for word.

    The link beside each number opens the source, so you can check it yourself. Two sources are news pages about work we could not open; each is marked as such.

    The pattern behind it

    Feeling like a fraud has two files here. Compliment Deflection is when you push praise away the moment it arrives.

    Success Sabotage is the pattern of undoing things just as they start to work. The numbers above say how common the feeling is. They do not say why any one person has it.

    Catch is the first move. Catch means you feel the body signal and name the pattern before it becomes the behavior.

    The body signal is what you feel in your body as the pattern starts. It might be heat in the face as the praise lands.

    The free Crash Course, short lessons on your pattern, starts by naming it.

    HOW TO CITE THIS PAGE

    The Archivist Method (2026). Impostor syndrome statistics, each one read in its source. The Numbers. https://thearchivistmethod.com/statistics/impostor-feelings