Stress in modern Britain

In order to complement our 2017 Society Theme “Making Sense of Stress”, we commissioned a YouGov survey which asked over 2000 people to rate how stressful they found key life events. The study built on the famous stress work of Holmes and Rahe in 1967 to determine how different life events affect people, and the findings provide the basis of our “Stress in modern Britain” report.

Download “Stress in modern Britain”

Key findings from the study included:

Geographic variations: The most stressed area was Scotland, while the least stressed was the South East of England. The East of England was notably upset by delays in their commutes, while Londoners were most sanguine about going on holiday.

Age: The results for some events point towards stress levels increasing with age, most strongly for long-term problems such as illness or imprisonment. Exceptions to this trend were the loss of a smartphone, which fits with the added difficulties this would cause to highly-connected younger generations, and the arrival of a first child. This was rated highest by those 25-34, who are likely to be the group experiencing this most recently.

Brexit: Brexit had the greatest variety of responses given, with 18-24 age group most likely to be stressed by it. Those living in London and Scotland are also more stressed by Brexit than those than Wales and much of the rest of England. Most markedly, those respondents educated to higher degree level reported considerably greater stress from Brexit than people with only GCSEs or A-Levels.

We hope to use this study to raise awareness of the effect of stress on the body’s function. During stress, the body prepares for action by releasing hormones into the blood stream, which affects the heart as well as digestive and immune systems. Frequent and prolonged stress can cause long term physiological problems in the body. With women more likely to report feeling stressed than men, this could have a very real impact on their health.