Meaning in life test (MLQ)
See what each subscale means, how it is scored, and how a result is read against the population that actually fits you.
The Meaning in Life Questionnaire is the most widely used measure of meaning in life. Developed by Michael Steger and colleagues in 2006, its key insight is that meaning has two distinct sides: how much meaning you currently feel in your life, and how actively you are searching for it. Ten short statements take about two minutes and give two separate scores rather than one.
The model
What it measures
Select a subscale to see the aspects it captures. The MLQ deliberately separates two correlated but distinct dimensions: Presence of Meaning - the sense that your life is meaningful right now - and Search for Meaning - the drive to find, deepen, or augment that meaning. They are scored separately, never combined into a single total.
The most useful read is the four-way combination of the two: someone can have high presence and low search (settled meaning), low presence and high search (active seeking), high on both (engaged and still exploring), or low on both. Presence tends to track well-being closely; search relates more to seeking and, in some cultures, to a degree of distress, which is why the two are kept apart.
- PPresence of Meaning
The degree to which you currently feel your life is meaningful, purposeful and significant.
Facets: Sense of purpose, Life feels significant, Understanding your life, A satisfying direction.
- SSearch for Meaning
How actively you are striving to find, establish or deepen meaning and purpose in your life.
Facets: Seeking purpose, Looking for significance, Exploring what matters, Striving to understand.
The evidence
Science and validity
The MLQ is one of the most cited meaning measures in well-being research, and its two-factor structure has replicated across many samples and cultures. Internal consistency is strong - Cronbach's alpha around .86 for Presence and .87 for Search in the original work, and consistently in the .80s and low .90s since - with good one-month test-retest reliability. Presence relates positively to life satisfaction and other well-being measures and improved discriminant validity over older single-score meaning scales; Search behaves differently, relating to seeking and, depending on culture, to mild distress.
You rate ten statements on a 7-point scale from 1 (absolutely untrue) to 7 (absolutely true). One item is reverse-scored. Five items are summed for Presence and five for Search, each on a 5-35 range, and the two subscales are reported separately - there is no standard overall total. There are no clinical cut-offs; each subscale is read against a comparison group, and the combination of the two is the meaningful interpretation.
Where you stand
How a score becomes a percentile
A raw score only means something against a comparison group. For example, on the 5-35 metric a Presence of Meaning score of 28 sits a little under one standard deviation above the typical adult average (where the mean is near 24), placing it around the 76th percentile - more felt meaning than roughly three in four adults. Drag the slider on each subscale to see how a score maps to a percentile; your real result is matched to the population that fits you when you take the test.
The reference data
Benchmarked against the population that fits you
We benchmark your result against the population that actually resembles you, across 25 reference groups.
Each reference group is used as its own benchmark, not to rank one country against another.
How it works
What the questions feel like
Illustrative statements showing the style of the items. These are examples, not the official scored items.
I have a clear sense of what makes my life meaningful.
Illustrative example in the style of the scale, not an official scored item.
My life feels purposeful and worthwhile.
Illustrative example, not an official scored item.
I am actively looking for something that makes my life feel significant.
Illustrative example, not an official scored item.
I am still searching for my life's purpose.
Illustrative example, not an official scored item.
Honest strengths and limitations
Strengths
- The most widely used meaning-in-life measure, with a well-replicated two-factor structure across 25+ languages.
- Very short (about 2 minutes) and free for research and clinical use with attribution.
- Its key advance is separating felt meaning from the search for it, which is far more informative than a single meaning score.
Limitations
- It gives two broad scores, not a detailed profile - it tells you how much meaning you feel and how much you are seeking, not where that meaning comes from in your life.
- Like all self-reports it can be coloured by current mood and self-presentation, and Search in particular can read very differently across cultures and life stages.
- Cross-country mean comparisons are confounded by response styles and cultural differences in how meaning is talked about, so percentiles are a guide, not a verdict.
See your full profile
A complete report, matched to the population that fits you, with plain-language interpretation of every trait.
Frequently asked questions
What does the Meaning in Life Questionnaire measure?
It measures two distinct sides of meaning: Presence of Meaning - how much meaning you currently feel in your life - and Search for Meaning - how actively you are seeking or trying to deepen it. The two are scored separately rather than combined into one total.
How is the MLQ scored?
Each of the ten items is rated 1 (absolutely untrue) to 7 (absolutely true), with one item reverse-scored. Five items are summed for Presence and five for Search, each on a 5-35 range. There is no overall total and no clinical cut-off; each subscale is read against a comparison group.
Is searching for meaning a bad thing?
No. A high Search score simply means you are actively looking for or trying to deepen meaning, which is a normal and often growth-oriented stance. The most useful read is the combination of the two scores - high search with low presence suggests active seeking, while high search with high presence suggests staying engaged and curious even when meaning is already felt.
Is the meaning in life test free to use?
Yes. The MLQ is free for research and clinical use with attribution, distributed with a scoring and feedback packet by Michael Steger. On Psychology.me, the free Snapshot gives you a quick read on meaning alongside other measures.
Related tests
- Steger, M. F., Frazier, P., Oishi, S., & Kaler, M. (2006). The Meaning in Life Questionnaire: Assessing the presence of and search for meaning in life. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53(1), 80-93.
- Steger, M. F., Kawabata, Y., Shimai, S., & Otake, K. (2008). The meaningful life in Japan and the United States: Levels and correlates of meaning in life. Journal of Research in Personality, 42(3), 660-678.
The Meaning in Life Questionnaire is the work of Michael Steger and colleagues (Steger, Frazier, Oishi & Kaler, 2006) and is free for research and clinical use with attribution; this independent informational page describes the instrument and links to the official source.