Since 2010, the share of people living with an anxiety disorder has grown by about a quarter — worldwide.
This isn't "nervous before a test." It means anxiety strong enough, for long enough, that a doctor would diagnose it.
Picture a big school — 1,000 students. In 2010, about 40 of them would have had an anxiety disorder. Today, it's closer to 50.
One honest note: nobody counted every person on Earth. This number is a careful estimate, built by researchers combining hundreds of surveys from around the world. The exact figure is debatable — the direction isn't.
Sources
- https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/anxiety-disorders-prevalence
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165032724020743
- https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s43045-023-00315-3
- https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/any-anxiety-disorder
- https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/explore-mental-health/statistics/anxiety-statistics
