How common is stress? What are the leading causes? Who is affected most by anxiety and burnout? This page is a summary of the latest stress statistics and facts.
Stress affects us all to varying degrees. Conditions such as anxiety, depression, burnout, obesity and heart disease are made worse by excessive stress in our lives.
The more we understand stress, and make positive changes to our lifestyle, the more we can reduce its impact on our health. To give you an idea of the current state of stress, we’ve pulled together some of the most up-to-date stress statistics and facts from the UK.
Stress statistics: how common is stress?
- 79% of UK adults feel stressed at least one day a month. (CIPHR)
- 1 in 14 UK adults (7%) say they feel stressed every single day. (CIPHR)
- 1 in 5 UK adults (21%) say they never feel stressed. (CIPHR)
- Nearly half (49%) of UK adults admit to feeling stressed five of more days each month (CIPHR)
- 74% of UK adults have felt so stressed at some point over the last year they have been overwhelmed, or unable to cope. (Mental Health Foundation)
Leading causes of stress
- The most common cause of stress is work-related stress with 79% saying they frequently felt it. (Statistica)
- Excessive workload (73%), lack of control (31%) and lack of support (29%) are the top three causes of negative stress at work. (Champion Health)
- Lack of sleep and financial worries are the main causes of stress among UK adults in 2021 (CIPHR)
- 1 in 3 cite relationships as an external stressor (The Workplace Health Report)
- 36% of all adults who reported stress in the previous year cited either their own or a friend/relative’s long-term health condition as a factor. This rose to 44% of adults over 55. (Mental Health Foundation)
- Of those who reported feeling stressed in the past year, 22% cited debt as a stressor. (Mental Health Foundation)
- 23% of adults say that work causes them stress (CIPHR)
Coping with stress
- 46% reported that they ate too much or ate unhealthily due to stress (Mental Health Foundation)
- 29% reported that they started drinking or increased their drinking (Mental Health Foundation)
- 16% say that they started smoking or increased their smoking due to stress (Mental Health Foundation)
- Almost 60 percent of adults are drinking alcohol in order to cope with the stresses of everyday life. (Drinkaware)
- 57% of people say they drink after work to cope with stress and pressure, while 14% say they drink during the day. (Mind)
Impact of stress
- 51% of adults who felt stressed reported feeling depressed and 61% reported feeling anxious (Mental Health Foundation)
- 32% of adults said they had experienced suicidal feelings as a result of stress (Mental Health Foundation)
- 51% of adults who felt stressed reported feeling depressed and 61% reported feeling anxious (Mental Health Foundation)
- 37% of adults who reported feeling stressed also felt lonely as a result (Mental Health Foundation)
- Inpatient hospital admissions caused by stress-related illnesses in the UK cost around £8.13bn (Statistica)
- Poor mental health such as stress costs UK employers up to £45 billion a year (Deloitte)
- 13.7 million working days are lost each year in the UK because of work-related stress, anxiety and depression, costing £28.3 billion yearly (NICE)
Gender
- On average, women in the UK say they feel stressed approximately ten days each month, whereas men say they experience stress for an average of seven days a month (CIPHR)
- 81% of women have felt so stressed at some point over the last year they felt overwhelmed or unable to cope, compared to 67% of men (Mental Health Foundation)
- 35% of women said they had experienced suicidal feelings as a result of stress, compared to 29% of men (Mental Health Foundation)
- 36% of women who felt high levels of stress-related this to their comfort with their appearance and body image, compared to 23% of men (Mental Health Foundation)
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