Burnout Statistics: How Widespread Is Workplace Burnout?

Burnout has become one of the most-used words in the modern workplace, invoked to describe everything from a stressful week to a career-ending crisis. But behind the buzzword sits a body of survey data — and a formal definition from the World Health Organization — that gives the phenomenon sharper edges. When you look at the numbers, workplace burnout is neither rare nor vague. It is common, measurable, and closely tied to whether people stay in their jobs.

The World Health Organization brought some precision to the conversation in 2019, when it clarified burnout’s place in the International Classification of Diseases. Its framing is worth stating carefully: burnout is an occupational phenomenon, a syndrome that results from chronic workplace stress, and it is explicitly not classified as a medical condition (WHO, 2019). That distinction shapes everything that follows.

This article walks through what the data actually shows: how the WHO defines burnout, how many U.S. workers report chronic stress and burnout-related symptoms, how the United States compares with the rest of the world, and how burnout connects to the decision to quit. Much of the prevalence data comes from survey and polling organizations — chiefly the American Psychological Association and Gallup — rather than from government agencies, and we flag that distinction throughout.

How the WHO Defines Burnout

In its eleventh revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), the World Health Organization defines burn-out (ICD-11 code QD85) as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed” (WHO, 2019). Crucially, the WHO places it in the section on factors that influence health status — not among diseases. Burnout, in other words, describes something about a person’s relationship to work, not a diagnosable illness in the way depression, anxiety, or other conditions are.

The WHO identifies three dimensions that define the syndrome:

• Exhaustion — feelings of energy depletion or being worn out.
• Cynicism — increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism and cynicism about it.
• Reduced efficacy — a sense of reduced professional effectiveness.

The definition applies specifically to the occupational context and is not meant to describe experiences in other areas of life. That specificity matters for interpreting the survey figures below: when pollsters ask about “burnout,” they are asking about a work-rooted state that maps onto these three dimensions.

How Common Is Workplace Burnout?

The most detailed recent picture of U.S. worker stress comes from the American Psychological Association’s Work in America survey — a poll of employed adults, not a government data collection. In its 2023 edition, the APA found that 77% of workers reported experiencing work-related stress in the last month, and that 57% reported negative impacts associated with workplace burnout (APA, 2023).

Those burnout-associated impacts break down across several distinct experiences. The table below shows the share of workers reporting each one.

Read together, these figures map directly onto the WHO’s three dimensions — exhaustion, cynicism and mental distance, and reduced efficacy — showing up in a substantial minority of the American workforce at any given time (APA, 2023). Nearly one in four workers reported an outright desire to quit, a thread we return to below.

Job Insecurity and Rising Pressure

More recent APA polling suggests the pressures driving burnout have not eased. In the 2025 Work in America survey, 54% of workers said job insecurity significantly affects their stress at work, and 44% said they feared losing their job in an economic downturn — up from 36% in 2024 (APA, 2025). For employed adults, the fear of losing work is itself becoming a chronic stressor, layered on top of day-to-day job demands. Again, these are self-reported figures from a survey organization, not official labor statistics.

How the U.S. Compares Globally

Gallup’s annual State of the Global Workplace report — another survey-based product, drawn from worldwide polling — puts American stress levels in international context. In its 2026 report, reflecting 2024–2025 data, Gallup found that 40% of employees worldwide experienced significant stress the previous day, and that the United States and Canada were the highest-stress region measured, at 50% (Gallup, 2026).

That daily-stress figure has climbed over the long run before leveling off somewhat, as the table shows.

The 2020s peak coincided with the pandemic and its aftermath; the modest decline since then still leaves daily stress well above where it stood in 2009 (Gallup, 2026). For U.S. and Canadian workers specifically, half report significant daily stress — the highest of any region Gallup measures. This chronic-stress backdrop is precisely the soil in which burnout, as the WHO defines it, tends to grow, and it overlaps with the broader isolation captured in our look at the loneliness epidemic.

Burnout and the Decision to Quit

The most consequential finding in the burnout data may be its link to turnover. Burnout does not just make work unpleasant — it pushes people toward the door.

According to the APA’s 2023 survey, 33% of workers intended to look for a new job in the next year. But that figure roughly doubled among workers dissatisfied with their employer’s support: 57% of those unsatisfied with their employer’s mental-health support intended to job-search, compared with far lower rates among those who felt supported (APA, 2023).

A toxic environment amplified the effect further. The APA found that 58% of workers who described their workplace as toxic intended to look for a new job, versus 27% of those who did not — more than double. Nineteen percent of workers described their workplace as very or somewhat toxic (APA, 2023). The pattern is consistent: the conditions that produce burnout are the same conditions that drive people to leave, which is why the topic sits at the center of any serious discussion of mental health in the workplace.

Where Burnout Runs Deepest

Burnout is not distributed evenly across the economy. Several high-demand, high-stakes professions report rates well above the general workforce, and each has its own dedicated analysis.

• Health workers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — a government source — found that 46% of health workers reported feeling burned out often or very often in 2022, up from 32% in 2018 (CDC, 2023). We cover the full picture in our healthcare-worker burnout statistics, including the strain documented among health care workers.
• Teachers. The RAND Corporation’s State of the American Teacher survey — a survey effort funded by the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers — found that 60% of teachers reported being burned out in 2024 (RAND, 2024). Our teacher mental health statistics break down the stress, depression, and intent-to-leave figures.
• First responders. Federal data compiled by SAMHSA, resting on studies from roughly 2013–2016, estimated that about 30% of first responders develop behavioral health conditions such as depression and PTSD, compared with about 20% of the general population (SAMHSA, 2018). See our first responder mental health statistics and the overview for first responders.

These occupational patterns show that while burnout is broad, its heaviest concentrations fall on the people whose jobs combine emotional labor, long hours, and high stakes.

Why Burnout Matters Beyond the Individual

Because the WHO frames burnout as an occupational phenomenon rather than a personal medical problem, the data points responsibility toward working conditions as much as toward individual coping. The APA’s turnover findings make the organizational stakes concrete: unmanaged chronic stress does not just harm workers, it drives them to quit, with all the recruitment and continuity costs that follow. Employers who take the three WHO dimensions seriously — reducing exhaustion, addressing cynicism, and restoring a sense of effectiveness — are, in effect, addressing both a wellbeing problem and a retention problem at once.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is burnout a medical condition?

No. The World Health Organization classifies burnout as an “occupational phenomenon” in the ICD-11 (code QD85) and states explicitly that it is not classified as a medical condition. It is defined as a syndrome resulting from chronic, unmanaged workplace stress, with three dimensions: exhaustion, cynicism or mental distance from the job, and reduced professional efficacy (WHO, 2019).

How many workers experience burnout?

In the American Psychological Association’s 2023 Work in America survey — a poll of employed adults, not a government dataset — 77% of workers reported work-related stress in the prior month and 57% reported negative impacts associated with workplace burnout, including emotional exhaustion (31%) and a desire to quit (23%) (APA, 2023).

Is the United States more stressed than other countries?

By Gallup’s 2026 State of the Global Workplace measure, which reflects 2024–2025 polling, the United States and Canada formed the highest-stress region measured, with 50% of employees reporting significant daily stress, compared with a global average of 40% (Gallup, 2026).

Does burnout make people quit their jobs?

The data strongly links the two. The APA found that 33% of workers intended to job-search in the next year overall, rising to 57% among those unsatisfied with their employer’s mental-health support, and to 58% among those who described their workplace as toxic (versus 27% who did not) (APA, 2023).

Which professions have the highest burnout?

Health workers (46% burned out often or very often in 2022, per the CDC), teachers (60% in 2024, per RAND’s survey), and first responders (about 30% developing behavioral health conditions, per SAMHSA’s 2013–2016-era data) all report elevated rates relative to the general workforce (CDC, 2023; RAND, 2024; SAMHSA, 2018).

Has workplace stress been rising over time?

Gallup’s long-run data shows daily stress climbing from 31% in 2009 to a 2021–2022 peak of 44%, then easing slightly to 40% in 2024–2025 — still well above where it stood before the pandemic (Gallup, 2026).

Sources

1. World Health Organization. Burn-out an “occupational phenomenon”: International Classification of Diseases. WHO; 2019. https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases

2. American Psychological Association. 2023 Work in America Survey. APA; 2023. https://www.apa.org/pubs/reports/work-in-america/2023-workplace-health-well-being

3. American Psychological Association. 2025 Work in America Survey. APA; 2025. https://www.apa.org/pubs/reports/work-in-america/2025

4. Gallup. State of the Global Workplace 2026 Report. Gallup; 2026. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/697904/state-of-the-global-workplace-global-data.aspx

5. Nigam JAS, et al. Vital Signs: Health Worker-Perceived Working Conditions and Symptoms of Poor Mental Health — Quality of Worklife Survey, United States, 2018-2022. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2023;72(44):1197-1205. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7244e1.htm

6. RAND Corporation. State of the American Teacher, 2024 (RR-A1108-12). RAND; 2024. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1108-12.html

7. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. First Responders: Behavioral Health Concerns, Emergency Response, and Trauma. SAMHSA Supplemental Research Bulletin; 2018. https://www.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/dtac/supplementalresearchbulletin-firstresponders-may2018.pdf