Mental health in the workplace: stats and trends in the UK

Mental health has become something of a buzzword in recent years. But what is the extent of the problem in the workplace? And how is it impacting businesses?

We’ve gathered the latest mental health in the workplace stats and facts to help you find the answers to these questions and much more.

Note: All sources are referenced at the end of this resource.

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The impact of mental health on staff

The following stats demonstrate that mental wellbeing is a hot topic right now.

General symptoms workers experience:

• Nearly three in five people (57%) have taken harmful actions (including self isolation and doomscrolling) to deal with poor mental health in the past month. – Mental Health Foundation [21]
• 9 out of 10 (91%) of employees report high or extreme levels of stress in the past year – Mental Health UK [24]
• 60-80% of workplace accidents are the result of stress-induced issues – EHS Today [2]
• 74% of people feel so stressed they have been overwhelmed or unable to cope – Mental Health Foundation [5]
• 9% of professionals are experiencing thoughts of suicide or self-harm – Champion Health [6]
• There was a 23% increase in employees experiencing financial pressure this year – Champion Health [6]
• 60% of employees feel anxious – Champion Health [6]
• 56% of employees experience low moods – Champion Health [6]
• 19% of employees have a current mental health diagnosis – Champion Health [6]
• Over 80% of professionals experience fatigue at work – Champion Health [6]

How it impacts people in the workplace

• More than a third (36%) of employees say they have taken time off work due to mental health, but almost one in five (18%) did not give the true reason for their absence – Aviva [23]
• This figure is slightly lower according to Mental Health UK, whose research found that 1 in 5 UK workers have needed to take time off in the last year due to poor mental health caused by pressure or stress – Mental Health UK [24]
• 1 in 6 people experience mental health problems in the workplace – Mental Health Foundation [5]
• Only 13% of staff feel comfortable discussing mental health in the workplace – Mental Health First Aid England (MHFA) [9]
• Happy staff are 13% more productive – University of Oxford [10]
• 89% of employees with mental health issues say it impacts their working life. More than half of these have considered resigning from a job due to being negatively impacted by their mental health – CV Library [11]
• Around 50% of long-term sick leave is due to stress, depression, anxiety – HSE [4]
• Around 300,000 people with mental health issues lose their jobs each year – DWP [19]
• Over a quarter of staff say they can’t switch off in their personal time – hinting at increasingly blurred work-life boundaries – CiPD [13]
• Poor mental health negatively impacts the performance of 1 in 5 employees – Champion Health [6]

Generational trends

• 66% of staff aged 25-35 experience symptoms of anxiety – Champion Health [6]
• Workers aged 18–24 are the most likely to be absent form work due to high pressure of stress, with nearly two in five saying this applied to them (39%). – Mental Health UK [24]
• Only 11% of workers aged 55 and over said this applied to them – Mental Health UK [24]

Gender trends

• 96% of women report feeling extreme pressure or stress in the last year, compared to 86% of men – Mental Health UK [24]

Identifying the causes of poor mental health

There are endless, often quite personal, factors why your staff might be suffering with their mental health. But here’s what some of the most authoritative surveys have to say:

• The most common cause of stress is work-related stress, with 79% of employees saying they frequently have these feelings – Statista [7]
• Finances are a leading cause of stress – 37% of employees say financial pressure is now the top cause of stress outside of the workplace – Champion Health [6]
• 61% struggle being productive due to tiredness – Champion Health [6]
• Tiredness is the top cause of reduced productivity – Champion Health [6]
• 55% of people who experience depression say that work is a contributing factor – CiPD [13]

Top 10 barriers to making positive health changes

Although we know that more people, workplaces, and employers are recognising the importance of mental health, making positive changes is difficult.

A survey by Champion Health [6] discovered the following barriers to making mental health changes in 2023:

• 47% said willpower
• 43% said lack of time
• 33% said work commitments
• 26% said family commitments
• 20% said mental health
• 19% said low confidence
• 12% said lack of knowledge
• 11% said lack of support
• 9% said finances

Cost of workplace mental health in the UK

Leaving your staff to battle any mental health issue is going to negatively cost and affect your workplace – whether that’s financially, culturally, or productivity wise.

• 119 out of 150 businesses have experienced mental health-related absences over the last two years. Altogether, this accounted for more than 28,000 lost working hours! – Purple House Clinic Rugby [20]
• Mental health accounted for between 4% and 7% of health insurance claims between January 2024 and early 2026 according to data from Healix Health – Healix Health [22]
• The average absence for stress, depression or anxiety was 22.9 days per case – HSE [25]
• Poor workplace mental health costs UK employers around £56 billion each year – MHFA England [12]
• Presenteeism costs around £28 billion, staff turnover around £22 billion, and absenteeism around £6 billion – Deloitte [16]
• 28% of UK sick days are due to poor workplace mental health – Deloitte [16]
• 61% of UK employees who left a job in the last year / plan to leave in the next 12 months have cited poor mental health as a factor – Deloitte [16]
• Cost of staff turnover due to poor mental health has increased by over 150% in the last 3 years: from £8.6 billion (2019) to £22.4 billion (2021) – Deloitte [16]
• 51% of all work-related ill health is down to stress, anxiety, and depression – HSE [4]
• In 2021-2022, 17 million days were lost due to work-related stress, depression, or anxiety – an average of 18.6 days lost per case – HSE [4]
• Initiatives aimed at improving workplace mental health can have a return on investment up to 800% – higher productivity, fewer sick days, lower staff turnover – Mental Health First Aid England (MHFA) [9]
• Mental health initiatives can save UK businesses up to £8 billion each year – Koa Health [17]
• Investing £80 per employee in promoting wellbeing at work will create a net return of around £600 savings – reduced presenteeism and absenteeism – Mental Health Foundation [5]

Mental health by sector

Working in different sectors or industries comes with its own each unique set of problems to tackle and overcome. Let’s see what these mental health in the workplace stats have to say:

• 54% of staff in the tech industry work more on weekends/in the evening than before Covid – CharlieHR/Spill [14]
• 86% of finance organisations have had an increase in demand for mental health support in 2021 – Koa Health [17]
• 45% of workers in construction/engineering have taken time off due to poor mental wellbeing – Benenden Health [18]
• Education sector had a 70% turnover rate in 2020-2021 – Deloitte [16]
• Across all sectors, 47% of employees display clear presenteeism – Deloitte [16]
• 82% of employees in the tech industry are feeling burnout – CharlieHR/Spill [14]

Improving mental health: support offered and obstacles to overcome

We complete our collection of mental health in the workplace stats by looking at how things are changing or still need to change. As ever, there’s work to do, but positive signs ahead!

The negatives:

• 52% of employees don’t feel they are receiving enough support from employers on mental wellbeing – Deloitte [16]
• Only 38% of HR respondents say their line managers are equipped for sensitive conversations around mental health – CiPD [13]
• Only 10% of employees are currently seeking support for their mental health – despite 60% having said they are experiencing anxiety – Champion Health [6]

The positives:

• 98% of professionals are motivated to make a positive change – despite the evident challenges, the vast majority are motivated to improve their wellbeing – Champion Health [6]
• Employees currently seeking mental health support: – Champion Health [6]
  • 25% male
  • 74% female
  • 1% other
• Staff are using digital tools to support their mental health more than they were before the pandemic (47% compared to 35%) – Deloitte [16]
• 51% of staff “feel supported at work” – Champion Health [6]

Need one-to-one advice and support?

If you’re an employer looking to piece together the right combination of benefits to support the physical and emotional wellbeing of your teams, then you’ve come to the right place. Our award-winning team will advise you – for FREE – about the employee benefits marketplace and review any policies you have in place.

Hooray works on your behalf to help your business and its people be as healthy as possible. Give us a call on 01273 222805 or email hello@hoorayinsurance.co.uk.

References:

1. YouGov research – ‘Half of British workers say they feel stressed at work’ – 2022
2. EHS Today infographic – ‘Burnt Out: Stress on the Job’ – 2016
3. The American Institute of Stress – ‘Digesting the Statistics of Workplace Stress’
4. Health and Safety Executive – ‘Health and safety statistics: Key figures for Great Britain’ – 2021/2022
5. Mental Health Foundation – ‘Stress statistics: Results of our 2018 study’ – 2018
6. Champion Health – ‘The Workplace Health Report’ – 2023
7. Statista – ‘Most common types of stress experienced in the United Kingdom’ – 2020
8. CiPD – Health and Wellbeing Survey report – 2022
9. Mental Health First Aid England (MHFA) – ‘Where’s your head at? Mental health campaign’ – 2019
10. University of Oxford – ‘Happy workers are 13% more productive’
11. CV Library – Mental Health in the Workplace – 2017
12. MHFA England – ‘Ten workplace mental health statistics you should know in 2022’ – 2022
13. CIPD – ‘CIPD Good Work Index: UK Working Lives Survey’ – 2022
14. CharlieHR/Spill – ‘The State of Mental Health in a year of Covid remote working’ – 2021
15. HSE – Annual statistics on work-related ill health and workplace injuries – 2021/22
16. Deloitte – ‘Mental health and employers: The case for investment – pandemic and beyond’ – 2022
17. Koa Health – ‘Mental health in the UK Finance Industry Fact Sheet’ – 2021
18. Benenden Health – ‘40% of construction worker absence due to poor mental health’ – 2020
19. DWP – Thriving at Work: a review of mental health and employers – 2017
20. Purple House Clinic – Mental health survey of 150 businesses with 16to24 Market Research – 2026
21. Mental Health Foundation – UK using harmful habits to manage mental health – 2026
22. Healix Health –  Mental health accounts for 7% of group claims – 2026
23. Aviva survey – Reluctance to talk about mental health at work doesn’t mean a reluctance to access mental health support – 2026
24. Mental Health UK – The Burnout Report – 2026
25. HSE – Working days lost in Great Britain – 2025