How does being unpopular in high school affect a person later in life?

I suspect that (for the most part) being unpopular itself does not lead to positive effects in later life; rather, the same things that make one unpopular in high school are the things that have benefits in later life.

I had no wish to be popular in high school.  I liked to read, work as a volunteer in the school library, and usually ate my lunch in the library with the Librarian and her assistant and the Drama teacher.  As soon as I was sixteen I got an after school job at the public library, that lucky for me was only two blocks from our home.  For social contact I had a couple of boy friends in high school, and two close girl friends. My other main interest other than reading was sex,  after I discovered how it worked.  I preferred adults for sex after the first time.  It took a while for sex to become good, then to become wonderful for me.  After I graduated at age seventeen, I was glad to be out and ready for UCLA.

It allowed me to watch others make the mistakes that I never wanted to make. This, in turn, allowed me to learn from others mistakes.

If only I had been unpopular in high school I could answer this question. But of course, I considered myself unpopular and there's the catch.  What I really was was a shadow, a ghost, someone who almost wasn't there. I withdrew from interacting because I was afraid to be thought of as anything other than perfect. It sounds devastating, but like many things in life, you get used to it. I didn't talk to anyone and no one talked to me. When I was a senior kids would ask, 'Did you just start at this school?' after we had been there for 4 years. I framed it in terms of myself-- they were making fun of me. Were they? Maybe. I was too selfish to see anything else. High school was a time of raging hormones and those things affect psychology. It's a battle zone, don't let anyone tell you anything different, and it makes everyone who goes through it a little fucked up. So to answer the question more succinctly. It fucked me up. It fucks us all up.

No, I wasn't popular in high school. I drifted from class to class, and nobody would talk to me. I remember feeling really unwanted. It was even more difficult because of the fact it was boarding school. I would live in a dorm with other girls and they would simply "tolerate" me. I couldn't go to meals because i no one to go with. Yeah, people were alright to me, but they never included me or invited me to anything or ask to hang out. I remember I cried so many times because I so longed to be social and to be accepted like all my peers, and I cried all the times I was forgotten. They would have these nights in the dorm where all the girls in my boarding house were in the dorm I was in stressing over which dress to wear to the next party (that I clearly wasn't invited to) and I would just sit and watch in my little corner. I had a couple friends in my house, but none of them were proud to admit they were friends with the "loner". It was a really sad time of my life. But I told myself it wasn't important, and carried on studying. It definitely affected my self esteem, and does to this day, because of the fact I wasn't accepted by the society I spent my teen life living in, I felt I was unfit. Sometimes I would even blame my weight or my appearance. Today I'm doing better. I fit much more into the adult world. But I think it has its affects on your self confidence. I mean, I'm surprised when someone wants to be my friend or introduce me to their friends these days. That's kinda weird right..

Being unpopular in high school had two main effects in my life: 1) It conditioned me to be unafraid of social criticism. Who would stop being my friend, if my few friends already respected me because / in spite of being "weird"? 2) This lack of quality early connections made it difficult to make lasting connections later in life. This, in turn, made it bloody difficult to get any job whatsoever, even a job waiting tables. Although you could say #1 -- my apathy towards what others think but don't bring themselves to say -- probably compounded #2, it is ridiculous how big a hole that puts in your economic prospects! How do you "make your own job" when you lack the social capital to get a decent job in the first place? There will be no customers. And yes, it all starts in grade school, trickling up through high school into your adult working years. If you're unpopular in high school: DON'T BOTHER WITH COLLEGE! You'll encounter a few temporary friends, but none will be able or willing to help you land a job. Seriously. Don't -- even -- enroll!

Let me assume "High-school" in this question refers adolescence, the period one develops his/her personality, I mean you are still being 'cooked', Not done yet. :)   I don’t think people are either popular or unpopular, It is never that binary. I see few popular kids and then there are the "rest", most people fall somewhere between in the popular-to-unpopular scale. If I had to.., I will place myself somewhere in between, leaning more towards the unpopular side. Being unpopular means you will have only few friends, Even though there will be only few friendships, they were much more meaningful for some reason, (looking back i see they enriched my life a lot, I continue many of the friendships even now). Not having to hang out with many friends gave me a lot of time and freedom to try myself out on many different things in life and identify my true calling, Didn’t have to conform and restrict myself to only those activities that were approved by society as the “in thing”. So when i was 17 i knew what i will enjoy doing, so i picked a career that will let me do it and i am doing it all these years and enjoying it. I also see few of those popular kids being several times more successful than unpopular kids financially or socially or both. so if everything is equal it seems a popular kid will be more successful in life than a unpopular kid, but it is very rare to encounter "everything being equal". a very few of the successful few are also living a happy and fulfilling life, but the fact they have a happy and fulfilling life has less to do with their popularity and have a lot more to do with other aspects of their personality and the choices they made. I saw that being unpopular, you are denied a lot of social comforts in life, although this makes it a little difficult in the beginning, one will learn to live without them eventually, and later it becomes effortless, and very later you realize the freedom that comes from not needing those comforts. That freedom will be of immense value in life. I will not trade it for anything else, definitely not for being popular. I also saw that being popular means you are playing out to the population's will, So in a weird way it is the population which decides what you can do and what you can’t do. although a popular kid is several times influential in the society than a unpopular kid, the popular kid have much less influence in deciding his own actions. because he always have to be conscious about the popularity factor, Just see what happened to those popular types if they have to eat lunch alone for few days. Based on what i learn from looking back these are my thoughts at this point in life It is miserable to be popular and be bounded by it, it is miserable having to slave out the whole life to sustain the social acceptance levels (which have become a necessity eventually), it is a shallow wasted life. It is even more miserable to be a unpopular kid wanting to be popular, it is miserable to be unpopular without realizing the immense freedom coming with it. it will be a depressing wasted life. It is super awesome to be able to live the way you like, do whatever you want to do and that happens to make you popular naturally. it is a happy life. It is also awesome to be able to live a free and fulfilling life, you make it such a rich and fruitful life internally that you don’t give a rat's ass about external social measures such as success and popularity. That is a truly blessed life. Update : to know more about the 'freedom' part described here, read Anne-K.-Halsall's answer to this question  especially "The Good" part

I am certain I exited my mother's womb as quiet and reserved. Those traits followed me throughout high school. I wasn't a "loser" but no one knew who I was really and frankly I don't remember anybody. I didn't go to parties or school socials. I went to school then work then home. I think being that way spared my exposure to trouble. I still retain some reservation and sometimes I'm quiet. But now people know who I am and I live in a large city. I made a conscious decision to become more visible and I'm learning how to embrace that. In conclusion, it depends. :)

Each person will be affected uniquely. I withdrew, built thicker armor, dumped the garbage and found something I liked in myself. If one is such a threat to convention, they gotta have some good stuff! All in all I couldn't have done better without knowing/appreciation more. Worst outcome irrational anger issues...I may know better, but my emotions are still as stupid as ever.