Great Britain recorded 964,000 workers with work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2024/25, up from 776,000 a year earlier, on Health and Safety Executive estimates published in November 2025. Global employee engagement fell to 20% in 2025, Gallup’s lowest reading since 2020. This piece collects the workplace mental health statistics worth citing, each one labelled with what it measures and when it was collected.
Workplace Mental Health Statistics
Workplace Mental Health Statistics: The Global Baseline
The World Health Organization estimates 12 billion working days are lost every year to depression and anxiety, at a cost of US$1 trillion a year in lost productivity. Its fact sheet also puts the share of working-age adults with a mental disorder at 15% in 2019.
Gallup’s separate US$10 trillion figure measures something else: the productivity cost of low engagement in 2025, roughly 9% of global GDP. The two are not additive, and disengagement is not a clinical condition.
Gallup’s reading comes from 141,444 employed respondents across 140+ countries. Engagement has now fallen two years running, a first for the series.
Global employee engagement, 2025 (% of employed respondents)
Only one in five employees is engaged. Gallup reports 64% not engaged and 16% actively disengaged, and notes each percentage point covers about 21 million employees working for organisations.
Source: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026 Report, data collected January–December 2025
UK Workplace Mental Health Statistics: The HSE Record
HSE figures are accredited official statistics drawn from the Labour Force Survey, not a self-selected poll. The 2024/25 estimate is the highest in a series running since 2001/02.
| Measure | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|
| Workers with work-related stress, depression or anxiety | 776,000 | 964,000 |
| Working days lost to those conditions | 16.4 million | 22.1 million |
Source: Health and Safety Executive, Labour Force Survey annual estimates, 2023/24 and 2024/25
New cases in 2024/25 numbered 409,000. The prevalence rate reached 2,770 per 100,000 workers, which HSE describes as statistically significantly higher than the previous year. Average days lost per case was 22.9.
These conditions accounted for 52% of all work-related ill health in Great Britain and 62% of all working days lost to it. Workload, particularly tight deadlines and too much responsibility, was the most cited cause, followed by lack of managerial support, bullying and organisational change. Long hours at a badly arranged workstation compound the physical side, which is why science-backed ergonomic adjustments and a back-friendly workstation repay the hour they take.
Rate per 100,000 workers, industries above the all-industry average (2022/23–2024/25 average)
Public administration and defence carries the highest rate at 3,470 per 100,000, against an all-industry average of 2,040. Female workers recorded 3,220 per 100,000 and male workers 1,980.
Source: Health and Safety Executive, Labour Force Survey, three-year average 2022/23–2024/25
How Many Employees Feel Stressed at Work?
Gallup asks employees whether they experienced a lot of stress during the previous day. In 2025, 40% said yes, unchanged from 2024 and down from the 2022 peak of 44%, but above every reading recorded before 2020.
Employees experiencing a lot of stress the previous day, 2009–2025 (% global)
Daily anger reached 22% in 2025, sadness 23% and loneliness 22%. Thriving in life rose one point to 34%, the first improvement in three years.
| Group | % reporting a lot of stress, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Managers | 45% |
| Individual contributors | 39% |
| Female employees | 43% |
| Male employees | 39% |
| Hybrid workers | 46% |
| Exclusively remote workers | 41% |
| On-site, non-remote-capable workers | 39% |
Source: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026 Report, data collected January–December 2025
Hybrid workers report the highest daily stress of any work location Gallup tracks, five points above on-site workers who cannot work remotely. Working-from-home routines and a workable small home office handle more of that friction than most people expect.
Daily stress by region, 2025 (% of employees)
Source: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026 Report, 2025
Workplace Mental Health Statistics on Managers
Manager engagement fell nine points between 2022 and 2025 while non-manager engagement barely moved. Five of those points went in a single year, from 27% in 2024 to 22% in 2025.
Global engagement by role, 2022–2025 (% engaged)
The gap has narrowed from 11 points to 3. Gallup describes this as managers losing the engagement premium they used to hold over the people they lead.
Leaders report higher engagement and thriving than individual contributors but worse days: stress is 7 points higher, anger 12 points, sadness 11 points and loneliness 10 points. Inside organisations Gallup classes as best-practice, 79% of managers were engaged in 2025.
Source: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026 Report, 2022–2025
US Workplace Mental Health Statistics: What Workers Report
Monster’s 2026 State of Workplace Mental Health Report surveyed 1,000 currently employed US workers through Pollfish on 19 April 2026. It is a single-day sample of employed adults, not an official statistic.
| Finding | % of respondents |
|---|---|
| Say their job harms their mental health at least monthly | 59% |
| Have stayed in a job they knew was toxic | 71% |
| Feel pressure to appear “okay” at work | 70% |
| Report burnout from work-related stress | 46% |
| Say leadership is not held accountable for toxic behaviour | 44% |
| Feel they cannot be honest about mental health without consequences | 37% |
Source: Monster, 2026 State of Workplace Mental Health Report, survey conducted 19 April 2026
Within the 59%, 10% said the effect is daily, 22% a few times a week and 27% a few times a month. An earlier Monster poll of more than 1,100 US workers in April 2025 asked a different question and found 80% describing their environment as toxic, up from 67% in the 2024 edition.
Reported drivers of workplace mental health strain, April 2026 (multi-select)
Respondents could pick more than one driver, so these shares do not sum to a whole. Reported symptoms ran to anxiety or panic (39%), trouble sleeping (37%), headaches or physical pain (34%) and depression symptoms (25%). For anyone at a screen ten hours a day, developer workstation layouts and sit-stand desk tours show what people actually change.
Source: Monster, 2026 State of Workplace Mental Health Report, April 2026
What Poor Mental Health Costs Employers
Deloitte’s fourth report in its mental health and employers series, published May 2024 on a YouGov survey of 3,156 UK working adults conducted in October 2023, puts the annual cost to UK employers at £51 billion. Presenteeism is the largest single contributor at around £24 billion.
Deloitte estimate of annual cost of poor mental health to UK employers (£bn)
One correction is worth flagging. Deloitte’s own press release gives two different 2021 comparisons in the same document, £55bn in the body text and £56bn in the summary bullets, so the 2021 point is left off the chart above. The 2019 and current figures are stated consistently.
The same research found 63% of respondents showing at least one characteristic of burnout, up from 51% in the previous edition, and an average return of £4.70 per £1 spent on mental health support. Deloitte draws that return from a literature review of 26 published sources, not from a measured outcome at any single employer.
Source: Deloitte, Mental health and employers, published 17 May 2024, survey fieldwork October 2023
None of these four datasets establishes causation. Each measures prevalence, sentiment or cost, and none runs a controlled comparison between an intervention and an outcome. The physical setup stays the easiest lever, whether that means desk setup ideas or making a studio apartment workspace work properly.
FAQ
How many UK workers have work-related stress, depression or anxiety?
964,000 workers in Great Britain in 2024/25, up from 776,000 in 2023/24, on Health and Safety Executive Labour Force Survey estimates. Those conditions accounted for 22.1 million working days lost, or 62% of all days lost to work-related ill health.
Is the $10 trillion figure posted on Reddit the same as WHO’s $1 trillion?
No. Gallup’s US$10 trillion estimates productivity lost to low engagement in 2025, about 9% of global GDP. WHO’s US$1 trillion covers productivity lost to depression and anxiety. Different measures, different scopes, never added together.
Why do Reddit threads quote different workplace mental health statistics?
Because the surveys measure different populations. Gallup’s 20% engagement figure covers 141,444 employed respondents worldwide in 2025. Monster’s 59% covers 1,000 US workers surveyed on one day in April 2026. Neither result transfers to the other.
What percentage of employees are engaged at work?
20% globally in 2025, Gallup’s lowest reading since 2020 and down from 23% in 2022. Managers sat at 22% and individual contributors at 19%, after manager engagement fell nine points from 31% in 2022.
What does poor mental health cost UK employers?
£51 billion a year, on Deloitte’s May 2024 estimate using October 2023 survey fieldwork, up from £45 billion in 2019. Presenteeism contributes around £24 billion. Deloitte calculates an average £4.70 return per £1 invested in support.
Sources
https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/assets/docs/stress.pdf
https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace.aspx
https://www.monster.com/career-advice/research/workplace-mental-health-report
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-at-work
