Prevalence of anxiety before and after COVID-19 in OECD countries 2020

In early 2020, characterized by the outbreak of COVID-19, across select OECD countries there was an increased prevalence of anxiety or symptoms of anxiety. For example, in Mexico 50 percent of the population reported they suffered from anxiety or symptoms of anxiety in 2020, compared to just 15 percent in the year prior to 2020. The graph shows the results of different national surveys measuring the prevalence of anxiety or symptoms of anxiety in early 2020 and in the year before.

National estimates of the prevalence of anxiety or symptoms of anxiety in select OECD countries in early 2020 and in the year prior to 2020

Characteristic	Pre-COVID	2020
Australia	13%	21%
Austria	-	19%
Belgium	11%	23%
Canada	5%	20%
Czech Republic	7.8%	12.8%
France	13.5%	26.7%
Italy	-	20.8%
Japan	-	10.9%
Korea	-	29.5%
Mexico	15%	50%
New Zealand	6.1%	15.6%
Spain	-	21.6%
Sweden	14.7%	24.2%
United Kingdom	19%	39%
United States	8.2%	30.8%

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Release date

May 2021

More information

Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

2019 and 2020

Special properties

To the extent possible, 2020 prevalence estimates were taken from March-April 2020

Supplementary notes

"The survey instruments used to measure anxiety and population samples differ between countries, and therefore are not directly comparable, and some surveys may have small sample sizes and/or not use nationally representative samples. Differences in the openness of populations to discussing their mental state also hampers cross-country comparability. Where possible, surveys using the GAD-7 instrument have been selected. 2013 data for Sweden uses a cut-off of ‘8’ for the GAD-7, while most other studies use a cut off of ≥10."

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