In the classrooms of the UK today, there are more children than ever struggling with the rising and frequently unseen weight of anxiety. In the playgrounds of primary schools as well as the exam halls of secondary school, anxiety is insidiously undermining the wellbeing of young people to unprecedented levels. With the raised profile of mental illness in recent times, the extent and speed to which the children are being impacted remains strongly worrying.

As the latest NHS data reveals, 1 in 5 of the 8 to 16-year-olds in England today has a possible mental disorder—most of them anxiety disorders. That means five children in a standard group of 30 each harbor a significant burden that tends to remain invisible to teachers, parents, and classmates.

A Deteriorating Trend
To comprehend how we got to this point, we must examine the stats. In 2017, on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic, 1 in 9 children in England suffered a diagnosable mental illness. In 2020 that rate had spiked to 1 in 6. Now it’s 1 in 5 which reflects a chilling 50% rise in a few brief years.

This increase is even more dramatic in older adolescents. In a 17- to 19-year-old demographic, the proportion of individuals having a likely mental disorder nearly doubled from 2017 to 2022 and 23% are now impacted. These data aren’t abstract numbers they’re real lives: nighttime struggling to fall asleep for kids worried about the next day’s problems; school-plagued kids afraid to answer in class; or the perpetual social media compare’s hamster wheel.

Who Is At Risk?
Although anxiety does not discriminate, it does impact certain groups more than others. Numbers indicate that:

• Teenage children in secondary school (aged 11-16 years) are more impacted than younger children in primary school, with close to 18% having mental disorders, whereas 14% of primary-school children do.

• Teen girls are far more prone to anxiety than boys. Within the 17- to 24-year-olds group, 22% of women have a possible mental disorder as opposed to only 11% of men.

• The oldest teens, especially those aged post-16, experience the most anxiety due to the pressures of education combined with a lack of direction about the future and social pressures.

• Girls are also more inclined to ask for assistance. Charitable organisations such as Childline indicate that 88% of anxiety counseling was for girls, which would indicate both a higher rate of occurrence and a willingness in girls to discuss their mental well-being.

Why are so many children anxious?
There isn’t a solitary reason for the increase in childhood anxiety, instead, it’s the result of a multitude of intersecting factors:

1. The COVID-19 Pandemic
   The pandemic presented a perfect storm for childhood anxiety. Isolation, interrupted education, family stress, and fear of getting sick caused mass emotional distress. Although life has returned to a new norm, many children have suffered residual anxiety, social fears, and academic decline that remain with them.

2. Academic Pressure
   One of the most prevalent causes of anxiety is school. With the likes of SATs, GCSEs, and A-Levels being high-stakes tests, many young people are under a perpetual pressure to do their best. Learning gaps caused by the pandemic have only served to exacerbate the matter as student catch-up combined with unreal expectations.

3. Social Media and Online Pressures
   For today’s digital generation, the school day does not mark the end of stress. Social media exposes kids to perpetual comparisons, cyberbullying, and skewed notions of beauty and achievement. Mental illness in children was more than twice as prevalent in kids that had experienced being bullied on the internet. Social media also warps reality, causing kids to feel inferior or left out even when they are not.

4. Cost of Living Crisis and World Uncertainty
   It’s not only individual pressures that children are experiencing. Broader society-wide problems such as the cost of living crisis, climate anxiety and global conflict have seeped into the mental lives of young people. Children are well aware of the problems in the world and are conscious of being unable to do anything about it, which perpetuates a feeling of insecurity about the future.

The impact on services
The NHS cannot keep up with the increasing need. In 2019-20, a total of 99,000 children were referred to mental health services for anxiety. In 2023-24, the number stood at more than double that figure of 204,000, translating to more than 500 children referred each day.

Services are also overwhelmed. Too many children have to wait months to receive counseling or therapy, and in the meantime are denied support when it is most needed. Charities such as YoungMinds and the NSPCC have filled in some of the gaps, but the need is huge.

For instance, Childline provided more than 21,000 counselling sessions for anxiety alone in a single year of late almost twice the amount it provided two years previously. A total of more than 100,000 sessions for mental and emotional problems were provided in all together, and this was the most frequent topic children contacted about.

Where Do We Go From Here?
The evidence tells a clear tale: anxiety is becoming a characteristic of childhood in the UK. But there is no need for it to be that way. There are things that we can do, as a society, as communities, as individuals to help our children.

1. Early Intervention
   Mental support must start early. The sooner that anxiety is recognized and dealt with, the more positive the results. Trained professional mental health support must be made available to schools and integrated into the syllabus.

2. Invest in Services
   Investment in child mental health services needs to match the scale of the crisis. This includes reducing wait times, expanding the availability of talking treatments, and getting every child who requires assistance the help urgently and close to their home.

3. Support Families
   Guidance for carers and parents is also a must. Young children might find anxiety overwhelming and hard to cope with. Providing education about mental health to the parents and carers will make a big difference.

4. Challenge the Stigma
   Despite increasing awareness, mental illness remains stigmatised. We need to provide spaces—home life, school life, and the digital world—where children are comfortable sharing how they’re feeling without fear or shame.

5. Empowering Young People
   We must hear the voice of young people. They have a good understanding of what they need and how the world is impacting their lives. Empowering them to be the solution to the problem instead of feeling helpless can restore their confidence.

Conclusion
Childhood ought to be a life of discovery, laughter, and education, rather than a life filled with fear, stress, and anxiety. For far too many children in today’s UK, though, anxiety has entered their day-to-day lives.

The figures are dramatic, but also a challenge. If 1 in 5 children are in trouble, then society as a whole must act and not in silence or in waiting lists, but in compassion and in understanding and in support. What we do next holds the future for the mental health of our children.