Stress & Anxiety Statistics for Women: What the Data Shows

Women report more stress and anxiety than men in nearly every national survey. But how many women actually have an anxiety disorder? How much more stressed are women at work, and how many get help?

What actually helps? This page gathers the most reliable answers in one place.

The numbers come from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), SAMHSA, the American Psychological Association (APA), Gallup and peer-reviewed studies. It’s written for women 25 and up.

Every figure links to its original source at the bottom of the page. Data last checked November 2026.

Jump to a sectionIn this article14 sections

1. Key Stress and Anxiety Statistics for Women at a Glance
2. How Many Women Have an Anxiety Disorder?
3. Anxiety and Depression Symptoms by Sex and Age
4. Stress Levels in Women vs. Men
5. Work Stress and Burnout in Women
6. Mental Health Treatment and Counseling
7. Anxiety Across the Menopause Transition
8. Stress, Sleep and Anxiety
9. Stress and Emotional Eating
10. What Helps With Stress and Anxiety
11. What These Numbers Mean for You
12. How to Cite These Statistics
13. Sources
14. Frequently Asked Questions

Key Stress and Anxiety Statistics for Women at a Glance

• 23.4% of U.S. women had an anxiety disorder in the past year, compared with 14.3% of men.¹
• Women were nearly twice as likely as men to have generalized anxiety disorder (3.4% vs. 1.9%) and more than twice as likely to have panic disorder (3.8% vs. 1.6%).^2,3
• An estimated 40.4% of women will have an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives, compared with 26.4% of men.⁶
• 21.4% of women had anxiety symptoms in the past 2 weeks in 2022, up from 19.0% in 2019.⁷
• 8.5% of women had moderate or severe anxiety symptoms in 2024, compared with 6.2% of men.⁸
• 16.0% of females 12 and older had depression in 2021–2023, up from 10.9% in 2013–2014.⁹
• 50% of women felt stress a lot of the previous day in 2025, compared with 42% of men.¹⁰
• Women rated their stress 5.3 out of 10 on average, compared with 4.8 for men.¹¹
• 51% of working women felt stressed a lot of the day, compared with 39% of working men.¹⁴
• About 6 in 10 senior-level women reported frequent burnout, compared with about half of senior-level men.¹⁵
• 24.9% of women took medication for their mental health in 2024, and 16.9% got counseling or therapy.¹⁶
• Women who exercised 6 to 7 days a week were 11 points less likely to report daily stress than women who didn’t exercise (45% vs. 56%).¹⁰

How Many Women Have an Anxiety Disorder?

The National Comorbidity Survey Replication interviewed U.S. adults face to face to check for diagnosable anxiety disorders. It’s older data (2001–2003), but NIMH still uses it for its official anxiety statistics. Past-year rates:^1,2,3,4,5

Past year	Women	Men
Any anxiety disorder	23.4%	14.3%
Social anxiety	8.0%	6.1%
PTSD	5.2%	1.8%
Panic disorder	3.8%	1.6%
Generalized anxiety	3.4%	1.9%

• Among all adults, past-year anxiety disorders were most common at ages 30 to 44 (22.7%) and dropped to 9.0% at 60 and older.¹
• About 31.1% of U.S. adults have an anxiety disorder at some point in life. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) puts lifetime rates at 40.4% for women and 26.4% for men.^1,6
• Among adults with an anxiety disorder in the past year, 22.8% had serious impairment, 33.7% moderate and 43.5% mild.¹

You’ll often read that women are twice as likely as men to have anxiety. For anxiety disorders overall, the gap is closer to 1.6 times. It reaches 2 times or more for panic disorder and PTSD.^1,3,5

For more on the main types, see generalized anxiety disorder, panic attacks and panic disorder and social anxiety.

Anxiety and Depression Symptoms by Sex and Age

The National Health Interview Survey screens adults with the GAD-7 questionnaire, which asks about anxiety symptoms over the past 2 weeks. Symptoms aren’t a diagnosis, but they show how many people are struggling right now.⁷

Anxiety symptoms	2019	2022
Women	19.0%	21.4%
Men	11.9%	14.8%

• In 2022, 13.1% of women had mild, 4.7% moderate and 3.6% severe anxiety symptoms. Men’s rates were 9.7%, 3.1% and 2.0%.⁷
• Depression symptoms followed the same pattern: 24.5% of women vs. 18.0% of men.⁷

Anxiety symptoms drop with age. These 2022 figures cover all adults:⁷

Age	Anxiety	Depression
18–29	26.6%	26.9%
30–44	20.7%	21.8%
45–64	15.8%	19.6%
65+	11.2%	18.6%

A second federal survey found the same gender gap. In 2024, 7.4% of adults had moderate or severe anxiety symptoms: 8.5% of women and 6.2% of men. Rates fell from 14.5% at ages 18 to 25 to 3.9% at 50 and older.⁸

Depression has climbed too. In the CDC’s NHANES exam survey, which uses the PHQ-9 questionnaire, 16.0% of females 12 and older had depression from August 2021 to August 2023, compared with 10.1% of males:⁹

Age	Women	Men
20–39	19.0%	14.3%
40–59	13.8%	7.9%
60+	10.6%	6.5%

Among females, depression rose from 10.9% in 2013–2014. The gap between women and men at ages 20 to 39 wasn’t statistically significant.⁹ See signs of high-functioning depression and sadness vs. clinical depression.

Stress Levels in Women vs. Men

Gallup asks a large panel of U.S. adults whether they felt stress a lot of the previous day. In the first three quarters of 2025, 50% of women said yes, compared with 42% of men and 46% of all adults.¹⁰

APA’s October 2023 Stress in America survey of more than 3,000 adults found a similar gap:¹¹

Measure	Women	Men
Average (1–10)	5.3	4.8
Stress rated 8–10	27%	21%
Money worries	50%	44%
Family duties	58%	52%
Relationships	49%	44%
Wanted more support	68%	63%
Canceled plans	27%	22%

• Money worries means feeling consumed by money problems. Family duties and relationships mean naming them as key stressors.¹¹
• Canceled plans means canceling social plans in the past month. Women were also less likely to say they get over stress quickly.¹¹
• In APA’s 2025 survey, 69% of adults said they needed more emotional support in the past year than they got, up from 65% in 2024.¹³
• In the same survey, 54% of adults often or sometimes felt isolated from others.¹²

You may have seen the claim that 75% to 90% of doctor visits are stress-related. It’s repeated widely, usually as “it has been estimated,” but we couldn’t trace it to a published study that measured it.

Stress clearly affects health. That exact number just isn’t sourced. Read more in what chronic stress does to your body and stress vs. anxiety.

Work Stress and Burnout in Women

Gallup research on U.S. workers from February 2023 through October 2024 found women carry more stress on the job:¹⁴

Workers	Women	Men
Daily stress	51%	39%
Job hurt mental health	42%	37%
Think about work off-hours	39%	37%

• Daily stress means feeling stressed a lot of the previous day. Job hurt mental health means a somewhat or extremely negative impact over the past 6 months.¹⁴
• Women with daily stress were 46% more likely to be actively looking or watching for a new job.¹⁴
• In McKinsey and LeanIn.Org’s 2025 Women in the Workplace study, about 6 in 10 senior-level women reported frequent burnout, compared with about half of senior-level men.¹⁵
• About 4 in 10 employees overall in that study said they frequently felt burned out. It drew on data from more than 120 companies and 9,000 employees.¹⁵

Worried work is wearing you down? Take the free burnout quiz, then see anxiety at work, early warning signs of burnout and a burnout recovery plan.

Mental Health Treatment and Counseling

In 2024, 19.3% of U.S. adults took medication for their mental health and 14.0% got counseling or therapy from a mental health professional in the past year. Women led on both:¹⁶

Past year	Women	Men
Took medication	24.9%	13.4%
Counseling or therapy	16.9%	10.9%

Counseling falls steeply with age, while medication use stays close to 1 in 5 at every age. These figures cover all adults:¹⁶

Age	Medication	Counseling
18–29	19.6%	20.2%
30–44	20.4%	18.7%
45–64	19.1%	11.7%
65–74	18.2%	7.5%
75+	18.5%	5.0%

• Among adults with moderate or severe anxiety symptoms in 2024, 60.9% got mental health treatment or other services in the past year, and 39.1% got none.⁸
• Of those who weren’t treated, 30.3% felt they needed treatment.⁸
• Worldwide, the World Health Organization estimates that 5.8% of people (470 million in 2023) have an anxiety disorder, and only about 1 in 4 of them get treatment.¹⁷
• The USPSTF recommends screening for anxiety disorders in adults 64 and younger, including during pregnancy and after birth.⁶

Thinking about getting help? Start with my beginner’s guide to therapy and when to seek mental health help.

Anxiety Across the Menopause Transition

Mood changes often show up in midlife. In the NHANES data above, 13.8% of women 40 to 59 had depression, compared with 7.9% of men that age.⁹

Mood and anxiety changes across perimenopause and menopause have their own studies and figures. You’ll find them, with sources, in my menopause statistics. If anxiety is new for you, see can anxiety go away on its own.

Stress, Sleep and Anxiety

Stress and sleep feed each other. In a 2022 Gallup study, adults who felt stress a lot of the day were about twice as likely to sleep poorly that night (45% vs. 23%).¹⁸

Women were more likely than men to report daily stress (48% vs. 42%) and worry (43% vs. 37%) in that study.¹⁸ For national sleep data, see my women’s sleep statistics, plus anxiety at night and why you wake up at 3am.

Stress and Emotional Eating

Many women notice they eat differently when they’re stressed or anxious. Most research on stress eating comes from small studies, so there’s no single national figure I’d stand behind here.

For the weight picture, see my weight loss and obesity statistics. For practical help, read how to stop stress eating, eating when anxious and emotional eating and weight gain.

What Helps With Stress and Anxiety

Three approaches have strong research behind them: cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), mindfulness training and regular exercise.

Approach	Evidence	Result
CBT	41 trials 19	Moderate benefit vs. placebo
Mindfulness	276-adult trial 20	Matched escitalopram
Exercise	1,039 trials 21	Medium benefit

• CBT patients were about 3 times as likely as placebo groups to respond (odds ratio 2.97). Effects were large for generalized anxiety disorder.¹⁹
• In the mindfulness trial, about three-quarters of participants were women. After 8 weeks, mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) was as effective as escitalopram.²⁰
• Side effects differed sharply: 15.4% of the MBSR group vs. 78.6% of the medication group reported at least one study-related adverse event.²⁰
• The exercise review covered 128,119 people. All types of activity helped, including walking, strength training and yoga, and higher intensity helped more.²¹

Gallup’s 2025 data shows how this looks day to day. The share of women reporting daily stress fell as their exercise days rose:¹⁰

Exercise days	Women	Men
0 days	56%	43%
1–2 days	51%	43%
3–5 days	47%	41%
6–7 days	45%	40%

Among women 18 to 44, daily stress dropped from 68% for non-exercisers to 54% for near-daily exercisers. This is survey data, so it shows a link, not proof that exercise caused the drop.¹⁰

Try exercise for anxiety, ways to calm anxiety, breathing exercises for anxiety and meditation for anxiety. For activity data, see my women’s exercise statistics.

What These Numbers Mean for You

Here’s my take as a coach: if you feel stressed or anxious most days, you have a lot of company. About 1 in 5 women has anxiety symptoms at any given time, and half say they felt stressed a lot of yesterday.

Common doesn’t mean you have to push through alone. CBT and mindfulness training both have strong trial evidence, and both are worth asking your doctor about.

Move most days. You don’t need a perfect program. Walking, lifting and yoga all count, and the survey data suggests women may feel the difference even more than men.

Protect your sleep, notice when stress turns into eating, and take the burnout quiz if work is the main source. If worry runs your days for weeks, talk to your doctor.

More stats pages: menopause, sleep, weight loss, exercise, nutrition and osteoporosis.

How to Cite These Statistics

Sources

1. National Institute of Mental Health. Any Anxiety Disorder. Data from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R), 2001–2003.
2. National Institute of Mental Health. Generalized Anxiety Disorder. NCS-R, 2001–2003.
3. National Institute of Mental Health. Panic Disorder. NCS-R, 2001–2003.
4. National Institute of Mental Health. Social Anxiety Disorder. NCS-R, 2001–2003.
5. National Institute of Mental Health. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). NCS-R, 2001–2003.
6. US Preventive Services Task Force. Anxiety Disorders in Adults: Screening. Final Recommendation Statement, June 20, 2023.
7. Terlizzi EP, Zablotsky B. Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression Among Adults: United States, 2019 and 2022. National Health Statistics Reports No. 213, November 2024.
8. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder among Adults. NSDUH Data Brief, Vol. 2, No. 3, November 2025 (2024 data).
9. National Center for Health Statistics. Depression Prevalence in Adolescents and Adults: United States, August 2021–August 2023. NCHS Data Brief No. 527, April 2025.
10. Witters D. Exercise Link to Lower Stress Greater for Women Than Men. Gallup, January 2026 (16,946 U.S. adults, Gallup Panel, February–September 2025).
11. Medaris A. Women Say They’re Stressed, Misunderstood, and Alone. American Psychological Association, November 1, 2023 (Stress in America 2023).
12. American Psychological Association. Stress in America 2025: A Crisis of Connection. Conducted online by The Harris Poll, August 4–24, 2025, among 3,199 U.S. adults.
13. American Psychological Association. APA Poll Reveals a Nation Suffering From Stress of Societal Division, Loneliness. News release, November 2025.
14. Gallup. More Than a Program: A Culture of Women’s Wellbeing at Work. December 3, 2024 (research from February 2023 through October 2024).
15. McKinsey & Company, LeanIn.Org. Women in the Workplace 2025. December 2025.
16. Briones EM, Villarroel MA. Mental Health Treatment Among Adults: United States, 2024. NCHS Data Brief No. 564, June 2026.
17. World Health Organization. Anxiety Disorders. Fact sheet, updated September 2026.
18. Gallup. Sleep Struggles More Common Among Younger Adults, Women. Gallup, 2022.
19. Carpenter JK, Andrews LA, Witcraft SM, Powers MB, Smits JAJ, Hofmann SG. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety and Related Disorders: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trials. Depression and Anxiety, 2018;35(6):502–514.
20. Hoge EA, Bui E, Mete M, et al. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction vs Escitalopram for the Treatment of Adults With Anxiety Disorders: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry, 2023;80(1):13–21.
21. Singh B, Olds T, Curtis R, et al. Effectiveness of Physical Activity Interventions for Improving Depression, Anxiety and Distress: An Overview of Systematic Reviews. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2023;57(18):1203.

Frequently Asked Questions

This page summarizes published research and government data for education only. It isn’t medical advice. Talk with your doctor before starting, stopping or changing any medication or supplement for stress, anxiety or mood, especially if you’re pregnant or have a heart, thyroid or other health condition.

Get help right away if anxiety or panic keeps you from working, sleeping or caring for yourself, or if you have unexplained chest pain. If you feel hopeless or think about harming yourself, call or text 988. This page is not a substitute for personal care from a qualified professional.