How Many People in the U.S. Have Anxiety?

Summary: Data from the most recent national report shows that around 57 million people have anxiety in some form, with around 37 million reporting mild symptoms, and close to 20 million people reporting moderate or severe anxiety.

Key Points:

• Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health disorder worldwide.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that around 300 million people have a clinical anxiety disorder, including close to 60 million people under age 18.
• The most common type of anxiety disorder is called generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), which involves excess worry abut a variety of things.
• Panic disorder, phobias, and social anxiety are also common.
• Anxiety is considered a highly treatable disorder, and typically responds well to a combination of medication, therapy, and lifestyle adjustments.

Anxiety Disorders in the U.S.: Annual Report Includes Anxiety for First Time

Since 1971, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and research experts RTI International collaborate on a large-scale survey of the U.S. population to ‘…provide up-to-date information on tobacco, alcohol, and drug use, mental health, and other health-related issues in the United States.”

For 2024, the report, called the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2024 NSDUH), included data collected from 70,241 participants from all 50 states and the District of Columbia (D.C.). Participants included 14,013 adolescents age 12-17 and 56,228 adults 18+, with 40 percent of interviews conducted online and 60 percent conducted in person.

The NSDUH is an invaluable tool for treatment providers and policymakers. The sample size allows for population level conclusions and generalizations, while the consistency – annually for 55 years – allows providers and policymaker to see the current situation as well as identify both short- and long-term trends in the data. The NSDUH helps advocates know who’s at risk and where to best use their time and energy, and helps providers and policymakers understand what groups to focus on, and how to best allocate public menta health resources.

New For 2024: How Many People Have Anxiety?

In the past, researchers gathered data on the following mental health metrics, or variations thereof:

• Depression, with the metric major depressive episode (MDE), a proxy for diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD)
• Severe depression, with the metric MDE with severe impairment, or depression that prevents/impair participation in work, school, or family activities
• Any mental illness (AMI), to measure rates of any clinical mental health diagnosis
• Serious mental illness (SMI), to measure rates of mental illness with severe impairment

Researchers also ask questions about treatment, type of treatment, location of treatment, reasons for receiving/not receiving treatment, and others. We’ll cover those topics in another article. For this article, we’ll focus on anxiety and the presence of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) in the U.S.

For the first time in the history of the NSDUH, researchers collected data on generalized anxiety disorder, defined as:

“…excessive anxiety and worry about a number of activities or events that are present more days than not for 6 months or longer.”

Symptoms of GAD include, but are not limited to:

• Nervousness/restlessness
• Excess worry
• Problems handling worry/thoughts of worry
• Difficulty sleeping
• Problems concentrating
• Chronic fatigue
• Nausea
• Increased heart rate
• Hyperventilating (rapid breathing)

To estimate the prevalence of GAD in the U.S, population, researchers included from the anxiety assessment tool GAD-7 (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7), a seven-item questionnaire designed to detect the presence of clinical anxiety.

Here’s what the GAD-7 asks.

In the past two weeks, how often have you:

1. Felt nervous, anxious, or on edge?
2. Worried too much about different things?
3. Not been able to control or stop worrying?
4. Had trouble relaxing?
5. Become easily annoyed or irritable?
6. Felt so restless it’s hard to sit still?
7. Felt afraid something bad was about to happen?

Respondents answer on a scale of 0-21, where higher scores reflect greater severity of symptoms. For the NSDUH, researchers classified the severity of anxiety, based on GAD scores, as follows:

• No anxiety/minimal anxiety: 0-4
• Mild anxiety: 5-9
• Moderate anxiety: 10-14
• Severe anxiety: 15-21

Let’s take a look at the results and learn how many people in the U.S. have anxiety.

Anxiety in the U.S. in 2024: Results From the 2024 NSDUH

We’ll share the data for all adults age 18+, then for each specific adult age category. Results and classification – none, mild, moderate, severe – are based on answers to the GAD-7, which we discuss above.

First, the data on all adults.

All Adults 18+: Past Two-Week Anxiety

• None: 78.3%
• Mild: 14.3%
• Moderate: 4.7%
• Severe: 2.7%
• Moderate or Severe: 7.4%

As a reminder, this data refers to anxiety symptoms over the past two weeks. Lifetime and past year estimates from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) for any anxiety disorder among adults are higher: 31.1% for lifetime presence of anxiety and 19.1% for past-year presence of anxiety symptoms.

Next, we’ll look at the data for young adults.

Adults 18-25: Past Two-Week Anxiety

• None: 63.4%
• Mild: 22.0%
• Moderate: 9.0%
• Severe: 5.5%
• Moderate or Severe: 14.5%

Next, the data middle-aged adults.

Adults 26-49: Past Two-Week Anxiety

• None: 73.9%
• Mild: 17.1%
• Moderate: 5.6%
• Severe: 3.4%
• Moderate/Severe: 9.0%

Finally, the data for older adults.

Adults 50+: Past Two-Week Anxiety

• None: 86.5%
• Mild: 9.6%
• Moderate: 2.6%
• Severe: 1.3%
• Moderate/Severe: 3.9%

Translating these percentages into numbers shows the following:

• 205 million adults 18+ had no or minimal symptoms of anxiety
• 5 million had mild symptoms
• 2 million had moderate symptoms
• 1million had severe symptoms
• 4 million had moderate or severe symptoms

Researchers pooled the moderate and severe symptoms to estimate the number of people for whom anxiety causes real disruption in daily life. People without clinical anxiety may not understand how disruptive even moderate symptoms of anxiety can be. In some cases, moderate symptoms may be relatively uncomfortable, but manageable. In others, moderate symptoms may be disruptive enough to significantly impair, but not fully prevent, full participation in all areas of daily life.

Treatment for Anxiety: What Works?

One thing we want people to understand is that where anxiety is concerned, any symptoms beyond mild can create real problems at home, at school, or at work, and even mild symptoms can be uncomfortable and disruptive.

However, another thing we want people to understand is this:

Treatment for anxiety is safe, effective, and works well for almost everyone.

An evidence-based treatment plan designed by a high-quality treatment center will vary by the individual, but will most often include:

• Psychotherapy: modalities such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and others.
• Medication: anxiolytics prescribed by a psychiatrist, when needed
• Lifestyle changes: improving sleep, exercise, and eating habits can reduce symptoms of anxiety
• Stress reduction: meditation, relaxation, yoga, and mindfulness can support and improve standard anxiety treatment

To learn about anxiety treatment at Crownview Psychiatric Institute, please visit our treatment page:

Anxiety Treatment in San Diego at Crownview Psychiatric Institute

We’ll close with this reminder:

Whether you have mild, moderate, or severe anxiety, evidence-based treatment is effective, and can help you manage symptoms of anxiety and live a full, fulfilling, and productive life. Research shows that the earlier a person with clinical anxiety receives evidence-based treatment, the better the outcome.