How common is social anxiety?

The short answer

Social anxiety disorder is common. The figure you see depends on four things: the time window, how it was measured, where and who. Here are the most reliable numbers.

All of these figures are correct. They just answer different questions.

Why the figures range from about 1% to 36%

1. The time window

“Have you ever had it?” gives a bigger number than “Do you have it now?” Social anxiety can come and go, so the past 30 days catches fewer people than a whole lifetime. In the same 28 surveys, the figure was 1.3% for the past month, 2.4% for the past year and 4.0% for a lifetime.

Some studies go further and estimate the chance of having it by a certain age in the future. For the US, that “lifetime risk” was 13.0%.

2. Diagnosis or questionnaire

This is the biggest difference.

• Diagnostic interviews ask detailed questions about fear, avoidance, how long it has lasted and how much it gets in the way. Only people who meet all the criteria count. The 4%, 12% and 9% figures come from these.
• Questionnaires with a cut-off score ask how anxious you feel in social situations. Anyone above a set score counts. They are quick and useful for spotting people who might need help. But they catch many people who would not meet the criteria for the disorder.

The 36% figure comes from an online questionnaire filled in by 6,825 people aged 16 to 29. It shows that many young people feel strong social anxiety. It does not show that 36% have the disorder.

How much do questionnaires overcount? One example: a well-known three-question screen picked up most people with the disorder. But of all the people it flagged, only about half (52.5%) actually had it.

3. Country

Rates differ between countries. In the World Mental Health surveys, they were lowest in low and lower-middle income countries and in Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean region. They were highest in high-income countries, the Americas and the Western Pacific. Another review found the lowest rates in Asian samples and the highest in Russian and US samples.

Part of this may be real. Part may come from how people in different cultures talk about fear, and how well the questions translate. But the age it starts and how much it gets in the way of life were similar everywhere.

4. Who was asked

• Age. It usually starts in the teenage years, so samples of young people show high rates. In a Canadian survey of people aged 55 and over, 4.94% had ever had it but only 1.32% had it in the past year.
• Sex. Women are more likely to have social anxiety and report it as more severe.
• Online samples. People who choose to answer an online survey about anxiety may be more anxious than average.

Is it getting more common?

Questionnaire scores among young people have risen in some countries. In Finland, a survey of about 450,000 people aged 13 to 20 found that high social anxiety scores rose markedly between 2013–15 and 2021, in both sexes. Among girls the share roughly doubled: in 2021, 47% of girls scored above the cut-off.

That is a real rise in distress. But these are questionnaire scores, not diagnoses. No one has yet shown, with repeated diagnostic interviews, that the disorder itself is more common now. See social media and social anxiety.

Which number should you use?

• To say how many people have the disorder: about 4% across countries over a lifetime, or about 12% in the US.
• To say how many young people struggle with social anxiety at a level worth checking: questionnaire figures, clearly labelled as such.

What these numbers mean for you

If you have social anxiety, you are far from alone. Yet across 24 countries, only 22.8% of people with social anxiety had ever been treated. It is common, and it is mostly untreated.

To see whether it fits you, read Is it social anxiety?.