Stress Statistics 2026: How Stressed Are We, Really?

Worldwide, 37% of adults said they felt a lot of stress the day before being surveyed in 2024, according to Gallup. In the US, 27% say they’re so stressed most days they can’t function, and at work, 40% of employees report daily stress, a share that has stayed above pre-pandemic levels for years.

If you’ve searched “stress statistics” before, you’ve likely seen the same round numbers copied from site to site with no year and no named source attached. This page traces every figure back to the survey behind it, Gallup, the American Psychological Association (APA), or NIOSH, so you can see exactly who was asked, when, and how “stress” was actually measured.

Stress statistics at a glance

• 37% of adults worldwide reported feeling a lot of stress the day before being surveyed, in 2024 (Gallup)
• 27% of US adults say that on most days, they’re so stressed they cannot function (APA, 2022)
• 40% of employees worldwide report a lot of daily stress at work, still above pre-pandemic levels (Gallup, 2026)
• Adults 18-34 average 6 out of 10 on self-rated stress, versus 3.4 out of 10 for adults 65 and older (APA, 2023)
• 62% of US adults call societal division a major stressor, and 75% are more stressed about the country’s future than they used to be (APA, 2025)
• Adults sleeping fewer than 8 hours a night report meaningfully higher stress (5.5 vs. 4.4 on a 10-point scale) than those getting 8 or more (APA, 2013)

How many people worldwide say they’re stressed?

Every year, Gallup asks adults in more than 140 countries a short set of yes-or-no questions about how they felt the day before. In 2024, that meant interviewing more than 145,000 adults age 15 and older across 144 countries and territories. 37% said yes to feeling a lot of stress (Gallup).

Stress was the second most common negative experience Gallup measured that year, just behind worry (39%) and ahead of physical pain (32%), sadness (26%), and anger (22%). Gallup notes that every one of these five measures now sits well above where it stood a decade ago, with the highest scores concentrated in countries affected by conflict.

If everyday anxious feelings are more your pattern than general stress, we break down diagnosed anxiety-disorder prevalence separately in Anxiety Statistics 2026, since the two are measured differently and shouldn’t be treated as the same number.

What is the US most stressed about right now?

APA’s annual Stress in America survey, run by The Harris Poll, has tracked the country’s mood for years. Its most recent wave, fielded in August 2025 among 3,199 US adults, found 62% call societal division a major stressor, and 75% say they’re more stressed about the country’s future than they used to be (APA, 2025).

Loneliness ties in closely with those numbers. 54% of adults said they feel isolated, 50% said they feel left out, and 50% said they lack companionship. Among adults with high loneliness, 80% also reported a chronic illness, a pattern APA frames as a genuine feedback loop rather than a coincidence.

Read across three survey years and the theme shifts, but the overall pressure doesn’t ease much:

Year	Survey theme	Standout finding
2022	Concerned for the Future, Beset by Inflation	27% say they’re too stressed most days to function; 83% cite inflation as a significant stressor
2023	A Nation Recovering from Collective Trauma	Adults 18-34 average 6/10 on self-rated stress vs. 3.4/10 for 65+; half of 18-34s report living with a mental illness
2025	A Crisis of Connection	62% call societal division a major stressor; 75% more stressed about the country’s future than before

Sources: APA, 2022; APA, 2023; APA, 2025.

Is workplace stress getting worse?

Globally, yes, and it’s been that way for a while. Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace: 2026 Report found 40% of employees worldwide felt a lot of stress the day before being surveyed, a share that has held above pre-pandemic levels for several years running (Gallup, 2026). Women report it slightly more than men (43% vs. 39%), and workers under 35 report it slightly more than older workers (42% vs. 40%).

The same 2026 report tracks a separate, broader measure of whether employees are “thriving” in life overall. In the US and Canada region, only 51% of employees qualified as thriving, a new low, and the first time since Gallup began tracking that more workers there were struggling than thriving.

US-specific data tells a similar story. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), part of the CDC, published an analysis in 2024 that draws on the 2018 General Social Survey’s Quality of Work Life module and finds close to 30% of workers say they always or often find their job stressful (NIOSH, 2024). In that same survey, about 70% said their job requires them to work very fast, and 43% said job demands interfere with their family life. For where chronic workplace stress can lead, see Burnout Statistics 2026.

Are younger adults more stressed than older adults?

Consistently, and by a wide margin. APA’s 2023 survey put adults 18 to 34 at an average self-rated stress of 6 out of 10, compared with 3.4 out of 10 for adults 65 and older (APA, 2023). That’s not a close gap.

The same survey found money and health-related concerns tied as the top stressors for that age group, both cited by 82%. Half of adults 18 to 34 (50%) reported living with a mental illness that year, the highest share of any generation APA surveyed. The survey doesn’t explain why the gap is this wide, but it has shown up consistently across recent survey years, not just once.

Does stress really affect sleep?

Yes, and the relationship runs both ways. In APA’s research, adults sleeping fewer than 8 hours a night report meaningfully higher average stress, 5.5 versus 4.4 on a 10-point scale, than adults getting 8 hours or more (APA, 2013). Adults with lower overall stress also report sleeping more: about 7.1 hours a night, versus 6.2 for adults with higher stress.

Part of why sits in the body’s alarm system. When stress keeps the fight-or-flight response switched on, the nervous system stays primed for action rather than winding down for rest, which is exactly the state sleep depends on shutting off. We look at how bilateral stimulation interacts with that same nervous-system arousal in How Bilateral Stimulation Affects Your Nervous System.

Why don’t all “stress” statistics agree?

Because they’re not measuring the same thing. Gallup asks a single yes-or-no question about how someone felt the day before, a quick emotional snapshot. APA asks people to rate their stress from 1 to 10 looking back over the past month, a slower self-assessment. NIOSH asks how often, on a frequency scale, someone finds their job stressful.

None of these approaches is wrong. But a “37%” from one survey and a “27%” from another aren’t directly comparable just because both say “stress.” Before repeating any stress statistic, it’s worth checking two things: what exact question was asked, and what year the people answering it were actually surveyed.

What can you do about everyday stress today?

None of the numbers above are about EMDR or bilateral stimulation specifically. They’re simply how common everyday stress is. But they explain why bilateral stimulation, the alternating left-right input at the center of EMDR, has become a popular tool for exactly this kind of stress, not just for processing trauma.

A simple version costs nothing: sit somewhere quiet, and either follow your eyes side to side or tap alternately on your left and right knee at a slow, steady pace for 30 to 60 seconds while a present-day stressor sits in mind. For chronic, work-driven stress specifically, patterns like overworking or never quite letting yourself rest often have roots that go back further than the current deadline, something Stress and Burnout: A Bilateral Stimulation Reset walks through in more depth.

EmEase, a self-guided EMDR app, is a way to practice that same technique on your own time, with a guided moving target or alternating tones instead of counting seconds yourself. Anxiety & Stress Relief: Bilateral Stimulation Moments walks through a short protocol you can try right now, and you can test EmEase itself at app.emease.com with a 7-day free trial.

The bottom line

However you measure it, stress is common, not rare: about 4 in 10 people worldwide report feeling it on a given day, and workplace stress has stayed above pre-pandemic levels for years. What changes from survey to survey isn’t whether stress is widespread, it’s which exact question was asked and who answered it. Read any “X% of people are stressed” headline by checking the source, the year, and the actual question behind it before you treat it as a universal number.

Frequently asked questions

How many people worldwide say they’re stressed?

In 2024, 37% of adults across 144 countries told Gallup they’d felt a lot of stress the day before, one of five negative experiences Gallup tracks annually. That’s just behind worry (39%) and ahead of physical pain (32%), sadness (26%), and anger (22%). All five have trended upward over the past decade.

What percentage of Americans say they’re too stressed to function?

In APA’s 2022 survey, 27% of US adults said that on most days, they’re so stressed they can’t function. That was during a spike in inflation-related stress (83% cited rising prices). By 2025, division and loneliness had replaced inflation as the leading theme, but overall stress hadn’t eased.

Is workplace stress getting worse?

It’s staying high rather than easing. Gallup found 40% of employees worldwide felt a lot of stress the day before being surveyed for its 2026 report, still above pre-pandemic levels. NIOSH data show close to 30% of US workers always or often find their job stressful, based on 2018 survey data.

Are younger adults more stressed than older adults?

Consistently, yes. APA’s 2023 survey found adults 18 to 34 average 6 out of 10 on self-rated stress, versus 3.4 out of 10 for adults 65 and older. That same year, half of 18-to-34-year-olds reported living with a mental illness, the highest share of any generation surveyed.

Does stress really affect sleep?

Yes, in both directions. APA’s research found adults sleeping fewer than 8 hours a night average higher stress (5.5 vs. 4.4 on a 10-point scale) than those sleeping 8 or more. Lower-stress adults also report sleeping more overall, about 7.1 hours a night versus 6.2 for higher-stress adults.

Why do different surveys report different stress percentages?

Because they measure different things. Gallup asks a simple yes/no about the previous day. APA has people rate stress 1 to 10 over the past month. NIOSH asks how often work feels stressful. Always check the exact question and year before comparing two “stress” statistics directly.