Well, not necessarily. While the two do share some common traits and crossovers, they also have a lot of differences, too.
“I believe Dr Judith Orloff’s notion of an empathic spectrum describes the difference between HSPs and empaths well, and it is a matter of degrees of empathy that distinguish them,” explains Abrahams.
“You can imagine a spectrum moving from no empathy on the left of the spectrum (those who are deficient in empathy such as narcissists, sociopaths, and psychopaths) to normal loving, empathic people as you move along the spectrum, to HSPs and at the other end of the spectrum are empaths.”
To give you an idea of what this might look like, here’s what the Empathic Spectrum looks like below –

Interesting!
While empaths share all the traits of HSPs, Abrahams said the main difference is that “empaths take the empathic experience much further and absorb even more of the emotional energy or stimuli from others and the environment.”
So, it’s kind of like an accelerated version of HSPs, where they’re wired to process other people’s feelings more intensely, effecting them in numerous ways.
“I see empaths as being more porous than HSPs, as if they have less of an internal/external boundary – where it is difficult to differentiate between what is my stuff and what is your stuff? It all becomes the empath’s stuff and they often cannot tell the difference as they internalise the feelings and pain of others.”
“Empaths differ from HSPs as many empaths feel intuitively connected within themselves, and to animals and nature. This is not part of the HSP personality trait.”