diff --git a/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/loader/plan/exec/process/internal/ResultSetProcessingContextImpl.java b/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/loader/plan/exec/process/internal/ResultSetProcessingContextImpl.java
index e6109e9d2b..a6337065fb 100644
--- a/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/loader/plan/exec/process/internal/ResultSetProcessingContextImpl.java
+++ b/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/loader/plan/exec/process/internal/ResultSetProcessingContextImpl.java
@@ -58,6 +58,8 @@ public class ResultSetProcessingContextImpl implements ResultSetProcessingContex
 	private List<HydratedEntityRegistration> hydratedEntityRegistrationList;
 	private int nRowsRead = 0;
 
+	private Map<EntityReference,EntityReferenceProcessingState> identifierResolutionContextMap;
+
 	/**
 	 * Builds a ResultSetProcessingContextImpl
 	 *
@@ -137,15 +139,22 @@ public class ResultSetProcessingContextImpl implements ResultSetProcessingContex
 		return LockMode.NONE;
 	}
 
-	private Map<EntityReference,EntityReferenceProcessingState> identifierResolutionContextMap;
-
 	@Override
 	public EntityReferenceProcessingState getProcessingState(final EntityReference entityReference) {
+		EntityReferenceProcessingState context;
 		if ( identifierResolutionContextMap == null ) {
-			identifierResolutionContextMap = new IdentityHashMap<>();
+			//The default expected size of IdentityHashMap is 21, which is likely to allocate larger arrays than what is typically necessary.
+			//Reducing to 5, as a reasonable estimate for typical use: any larger query can better justify the need to resize,
+			//while single loads shouldn't pay such an high cost.
+			//This can save a lot of memory as it reduces the internal table of IdentityHashMap from a 64 slot array, to 16 slots:
+			//that's a 75% memory cost reduction for usage patterns which do many individual loads.
+			identifierResolutionContextMap = new IdentityHashMap<>(5);
+			context = null;
+		}
+		else {
+			context = identifierResolutionContextMap.get( entityReference );
 		}
 
-		EntityReferenceProcessingState context = identifierResolutionContextMap.get( entityReference );
 		if ( context == null ) {
 			context = new EntityReferenceProcessingState() {
 				private boolean wasMissingIdentifier;