Stress Statistics UK - Workplace Stress Stats in 2024

Stress does a lot more than make you moody and irritable.

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Stress is a physiological reaction that disrupts almost every bodily system and has a catastrophic effect on our mental and physical health.

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Here are some statistics around stress that might surprise you:

Workplace Stress Statistics

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74% of people reported feeling so stressed in the last year that they were unable to cope (Mental Health Foundation)

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94% of people report feeling stressed at work (KPMG)

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50% of job absenteeism is caused by stress (EU-OSHA)

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76% of employees reported experiencing workplace Burnout (Gallup)

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Work-related stress is the most frequently reported type of stress (Statista)

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17 million working days are lost every year due to stress, depression, or anxiety (HSE)

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Mental ill health leads to the longest time off work, with an average of 19.8 days lost per case (HSE)

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‍1 in 10 people are thinking about leaving their job due to stress (Cartridge people)

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Over 500 million people fell ill as a result of their work-related stress (Cartridge people)

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Stress on our Health

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75-90% of doctor visits have a stress-related component (American Institute of Stress)

Stress is a major contributor to the 6 leading causes of death (APA)

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What’s going on in the body?

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We associate stress with a bad mood, irritability, and perhaps being a bit snappy.

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But it’s so much more than that. Chronic stress disrupts immune system functioning, cell regeneration, metabolism and just about every bodily function responsible for our health, not to mention the psychological impact that it has on our happiness and relationships.

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While stress is initially perceived in the brain, it triggers a cascade of responses throughout the body.

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Stress triggers our fight-or-flight response. The sympathetic nervous system becomes activated, adrenaline is released into the blood flow and everything speeds up.

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This boosts our speed, endurance and strength - to help us run away or fight potential threats.

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An incredibly useful response that’s aided our survival for thousands of years, escaping animals and physical threats. And all mammals have this identical response to short term stress.

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But the reason humans are suffering so much is that this short-term survival response is constantly getting triggered not by life-endangering threats, but by psychological threats.

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There’s no off switch. See stress is fine when we can overcome it - when there’s a clear end point. But workplace stress is never ending.

We essentially get stuck in this short-term stress response.

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When the body galvanises all its resources to our muscles to help us be stronger and run faster and further, it neglects the vital maintenance processes that keep us well.

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Why Zebra’s Don’t Get Ulcers

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This is why Robert Sapolsky called his book “Why zebra’s don’t get ulcers”.

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For a zebra running away from a lion in the Serengeti, there was a clear end point. Their stress was over, or they were over. It signalled the body to activate the parasympathetic branch of the nervous system - the slowing and calming response, allowing the body to return to its normal function.

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But you can’t run away from your boss, deadlines, and constant emails. There’s no end point to the stress we face these days and it’s destructive for our health.

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And when our stressors are always on, so is our stress response.

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Managing Stress

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Remember that humans aren’t designed to be chronically stressed, overworked and never able to switch off.  

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The modern workplace is incredibly damaging for our mental and physical health, which is why it’s imperative to equip employees with tools to manage their responses and reactions to stress, as well as infusing organisations with the knowledge and training to minimise the impact of workplace stress.  

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Managing stress might be the best thing you can ever do for your health, happiness and performance.

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Check out our guide for advice on how to manage workplace stress and our 4 part stress-management workshop series.

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