This review article examines the psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) as a self-report measure of depression across various settings and populations. The study involved a comprehensive search of electronic databases, hand searches, and author contacts to identify relevant studies. A total of 118 studies were retained and categorized into non-clinical, psychiatric/institutionalized, and medical samples. The BDI-II demonstrated high internal consistency (around 0.9) and retest reliability (0.73 to 0.96). It showed substantial overlap with other depression and anxiety measures, with good sensitivity and specificity for detecting depression compared to gold standards. Factor analysis revealed a robust dimension of general depression composed of cognitive-affective and somatic-vegetative constructs. The BDI-II is recommended as a cost-effective and widely applicable questionnaire for measuring depression severity, with broad applicability in research and clinical practice. However, the cutoff scores for screening depression vary by sample type, and further research is needed to address cross-cultural equivalence and item-level analysis.This review article examines the psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) as a self-report measure of depression across various settings and populations. The study involved a comprehensive search of electronic databases, hand searches, and author contacts to identify relevant studies. A total of 118 studies were retained and categorized into non-clinical, psychiatric/institutionalized, and medical samples. The BDI-II demonstrated high internal consistency (around 0.9) and retest reliability (0.73 to 0.96). It showed substantial overlap with other depression and anxiety measures, with good sensitivity and specificity for detecting depression compared to gold standards. Factor analysis revealed a robust dimension of general depression composed of cognitive-affective and somatic-vegetative constructs. The BDI-II is recommended as a cost-effective and widely applicable questionnaire for measuring depression severity, with broad applicability in research and clinical practice. However, the cutoff scores for screening depression vary by sample type, and further research is needed to address cross-cultural equivalence and item-level analysis.