1.9 million
workers were living with a work-related illness
This is the Health and Safety Executive estimate for Great Britain in its 2024/25 annual overview.
Source: Health and Safety Executive, 2025Holistic Axis
Workplace stress in the UK: 8 current statistics
A concise, sourced reference for people writing about pressure, burnout and the human cost of work.
Last updated 21 September 2026
At a glance
The figures behind a growing strain
Work-related stress is not only a private concern. It affects health, judgement, relationships, absence and the capacity to keep doing good work. These figures bring together the latest available public estimates for Great Britain with recent UK polling on burnout.
This page is designed to be quoted accurately. Each figure has a source and date, and survey findings are described as survey findings.
964,000
workers were affected by work-related stress, depression or anxiety
The Health and Safety Executive lists this within its latest overview of work-related ill health in Great Britain.
Source: Health and Safety Executive, 202540.1 million
working days were lost to work-related illness and workplace injury
This is the combined national estimate, showing the scale of time lost when health and work are not sustainable.
Source: Health and Safety Executive, 2025£22.9 billion
was the estimated annual cost of current working conditions
The estimate covers injuries and ill health from current working conditions in Great Britain for 2023/24.
Source: Health and Safety Executive, 2023/2491%
of UK adults reported high or extreme pressure or stress in the past year
This is a national polling finding, not a clinical prevalence measure.
Source: Mental Health UK Burnout Report, 20261 in 5
workers took time off due to stress-related poor mental health
Mental Health UK reports this from its November 2025 survey of UK adults and workers.
Source: Mental Health UK Burnout Report, 202642%
identified a high or increased workload as a leading work stressor
Mental Health UK identifies workload as the largest reported driver of stress at work in its 2026 report.
Source: Mental Health UK Burnout Report, 2026More than 1 in 3
workers would not feel comfortable telling their manager they were struggling
The finding highlights how easily pressure can remain hidden until it has become more costly.
Source: Mental Health UK Burnout Report, 2026What the figures do and do not say
Numbers make the scale visible. They do not tell the whole story.
Stress and burnout are not interchangeable with a diagnosis, and no national figure can explain what is happening in one person, team or organisation. The value of the data is in making pressure discussable before it becomes the only thing directing decisions.
Explore private support for leadership pressureMethodology and sources
How this page is kept useful
Health and Safety Executive
The first four figures are from the Health and Safety Executive’s annual overview of health and safety statistics for Great Britain. Its page lists 2024/25 work-related ill-health estimates and its 2023/24 cost estimate.
Read the Health and Safety Executive overviewMental Health UK
The final four figures are from Mental Health UK’s Burnout Report 2026. Its findings are based on YouGov polling of 4,502 UK adults, including 2,591 workers, conducted from 3 to 5 November 2025.
Read the Mental Health UK Burnout Report