Bullying and cyberbullying statistics worldwide

Updated October 2026

About one in four children and adolescents worldwide is bullied: about 25%, according to a worldwide meta-analysis by Ariani and colleagues in the Journal of Affective Disorders. A meta-analysis is a study that combines the results of many studies. Bullying is also linked to poorer mental health ⁴. The key figures below show how many young people face bullying, from that meta-analysis ¹ and from World Health Organization school surveys.

Bullying means deliberately hurting someone again and again from a position of power: hitting, name-calling, leaving someone out, spreading rumours, or doing any of these online. It affects children in every region, and adults at work too.

Surveys ask about bullying in different ways and over different periods, from the past month to the past year. Some count being bullied two or more times; others count any bullying at all. Each figure below names what it counts, the people it covers and the year. An odds ratio compares how likely something is in one group with another: above one means more likely, below one less likely. A meta-analysis, or pooled estimate, combines the results of many studies into one figure.

Getting help

If something on this page reflects what you are going through, you do not have to manage it alone. Our guide to finding the right therapist explains how to choose someone qualified, and the TherapyRoute directory lists therapists in many countries.

If you are in crisis or thinking about suicide, our list of helplines and crisis lines worldwide gives free services by country. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.

Bullying worldwide

Reviews that pooled school surveys from many countries find that a large share of young people are bullied, with the highest rates in the African and Eastern Mediterranean regions. The median is the middle value when you line the countries up from lowest to highest.

• Almost one in three students worldwide, 32%, had been bullied by their peers at school at least once in the past month, according to a UNESCO global report. (survey published 2019, fieldwork year not stated) ⁶
• Close to 130 million students aged thirteen to fifteen worldwide experience bullying, according to a UNICEF estimate. (survey, 2003-2016 data) ⁷
• Across ninety-six countries and territories, 7.3% of students aged thirteen to fifteen, about one in thirteen, had been bullied at school on six or more days in the past month. (survey, 2003-2017 data) ⁸
• On average across Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, 20% of fifteen-year-old students reported being bullied at least a few times a month in 2022. (survey, 2022 data) ⁹
• Across fifty countries and territories, 29% of children aged nine to ten had been bullied every month over the past school year, according to data from an international reading survey, compiled by UNESCO. (survey, past school year, published 2019, fieldwork year not stated) ⁸
• In sub-Saharan Africa, the median share of students aged thirteen to fifteen bullied at school in the past month was 48.2% across surveyed countries, according to UNESCO. (survey, 2003-2017 data) ⁸
• In North Africa, the median share of students aged thirteen to fifteen bullied at school in the past month was 42.7% across surveyed countries, according to UNESCO. (survey, 2003-2017 data) ⁸
• In the Middle East, the median share of students aged thirteen to fifteen bullied at school in the past month was 41.1% across surveyed countries, according to UNESCO. (survey, 2003-2017 data) ⁸
• In Asia, the median share of students aged thirteen to fifteen bullied at school in the past month was 30.3% across surveyed countries, according to UNESCO. (survey, 2003-2017 data) ⁸
• In the Pacific, the median share of students aged thirteen to fifteen bullied at school in the past month was 36.8% across surveyed countries, according to UNESCO. (survey, 2003-2017 data) ⁸
• In South America, the median share of students aged thirteen to fifteen who reported being bullied in the past month was 30.2% across countries with school survey data, according to UNESCO. (survey, 2003-2017 data) ⁸
• Among students aged thirteen to fifteen who had been bullied, 15.3% said they were made fun of because of how their face or body looks. (survey, 2003-2017 data) ⁸
• Among students aged thirteen to fifteen who had been bullied, 10.9% said the bullying was based on their race, nationality or colour. (survey, 2003-2017 data) ⁸
• A global meta-analysis found that about 16% of children and adolescents bully others. (pooled from prevalence studies, at one point in time, published 2025) ¹
• Among adolescents aged twelve to seventeen in the school survey, the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region had the highest share bullied in the past month, at 45.1%. (survey, at one point in time, 2003-2015 data) ²
• In the WHO African Region, 43.5% of adolescents aged twelve to seventeen in the school survey had been bullied in the past month. (survey, at one point in time, 2003-2015 data) ²
• Among adolescents aged twelve to seventeen in a school survey of eighty-three countries, the World Health Organization European region had the lowest share bullied in the past month, at 8.4%. The authors note the region was not well represented. (survey, at one point in time, 2003-2015 data) ²
• Among school students aged twelve to seventeen in the high income countries covered by the school survey, 20.0% had been bullied in the past month, lower than in low and middle income countries. (survey, at one point in time, 2003-2015 data) ²
• In the Global School-based Student Health Survey, 33.0% of boys aged twelve to seventeen had been bullied at school in the past month, more than girls. (survey, at one point in time, 2003-2015 data) ²
• A meta-analysis of African studies found that 46.4% of school aged adolescents had been bullied. (pooled from prevalence studies, at one point in time, published 2025) ¹⁰
• In Eastern Africa, 49.2% of school aged adolescents reported being bullied, a higher share than in Southern Africa. (pooled from prevalence studies, at one point in time, published 2025) ¹⁰
• Across eleven sub-Saharan African countries, 38.8% of in-school adolescents had been bullied on at least one day in the past month. (survey, at one point in time, 2010-2017 data) ¹¹
• Adolescents in Samoa reported the highest rate of bullying in the past month of the eighty-three countries analysed in the school survey, at 75.0%. (survey, at one point in time, 2003-2015 data) ²

Cyberbullying

Online bullying follows young people home. Many who are bullied online are also bullied at school.

• In Europe, Central Asia and Canada, 12% of boys aged eleven, thirteen and fifteen had been cyberbullied in the 2018 survey round, rising to 15% in the 2022 round. (survey, 2018-2022 data) ³
• For comparison with cyberbullying, about 11% of adolescents aged eleven, thirteen and fifteen in Europe, Central Asia and Canada had been bullied at school in 2021/2022, with no real difference between boys and girls. (survey, at one point in time, 2021/2022 data) ³
• About 12% of adolescents in Europe, Central Asia and Canada said they had cyberbullied others in 2021/2022. (survey, at one point in time, 2021/2022 data) ³
• A meta-analysis found that 63.1% of children and adolescents who were cyberbullied had also been bullied at school. (pooled from prevalence studies, at one point in time, published 2024) ¹²
• In the United States, 15.9% of high school students were bullied electronically in the year before the 2021 survey. (survey, past 12 months, 2021 data) ¹³
• In Brazil, 13.2% of students aged thirteen to seventeen felt threatened, offended and humiliated on social networks or phone apps in the month before the 2019 survey. (survey, at one point in time, 2019 data) ¹⁴
• Girls aged ten to fifteen in England and Wales were more likely than boys to face online bullying behaviour, at 22.5%, in the 2022/23 Crime Survey. (survey, past 12 months, 2022/23 data) ¹⁵
• Of children aged ten to fifteen in England and Wales who were bullied online in the past year, 22.7% said it affected them emotionally a lot. (survey, past 12 months, 2022/23 data) ¹⁵
• Of children aged ten to fifteen in England and Wales who were bullied online in the past year, 18.1% told no one. (survey, past 12 months, 2022/23 data) ¹⁵
• In England and Wales, 19.1% of children aged ten to fifteen experienced online bullying behaviour in the past year, in the 2022/23 Crime Survey. (survey, past 12 months, 2022/23 data) ¹⁵
• A meta-analysis of studies in Chinese communities found that 9.6% of school aged young people had been cyberbullied. (pooled from prevalence studies, at one point in time, published 2022) ¹⁶

Bullying and mental health

Young people who are bullied are more likely to develop depression and anxiety, and the risk rises with how often it happens. Many feel lonely or lose sleep with worry. If bullying has left you or your child thinking about suicide, see our helplines and crisis lines worldwide. An adjusted figure allows for other differences between the groups compared, such as age.

• Among students aged thirteen to fifteen who had been bullied, 18.3% felt lonely most of the time or always over the past year, more than twice the share among students who had not been bullied. (survey, past 12 months, 2003-2017 data) ⁸
• Among students aged thirteen to fifteen who had been bullied, 17.2% had been so worried over the past year that they could not sleep at night, more than twice the share among students who had not been bullied. (survey, past 12 months, 2003-2017 data) ⁸
• In countries running the Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS), 23.4% of students aged thirteen to fifteen bullied in the past thirty days had seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year. That is about twice the share among students not bullied. (survey, past 12 months, 2003-2017 data) ⁸
• The more often young people were bullied, the higher their odds of depression, reaching an odds ratio of 3.26 for those frequently bullied. (meta-analysis of studies, published 2017) ⁴
• Young people who were bullied were more likely to experience anxiety or related conditions such as social phobia and post-traumatic stress disorder (odds ratio 1.77, pooled across these). (meta-analysis of studies, published 2017) ⁴
• In Kenya, adolescents bullied in the past three months had about 2.17 times the adjusted odds of a mental disorder in the past twelve months, compared with those not bullied. (survey, at one point in time, 2021 data) ¹⁷
• Global Burden of Disease estimates, which model the health toll of illness and injury, link bullying to 511,201 years of healthy life lost to depression in North Africa and the Middle East in 2021. These are disability-adjusted life years, or DALYs. This is a modelled estimate, not a count. (modelled estimate, 2021 data) ¹⁸

Bullying at work

Adults are bullied too. Workplace bullying is linked to common mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety ⁵, and in one English survey much of it came from managers.

• Worldwide, according to the International Labour Organization, 17.9% of employed people aged fifteen and over said they had experienced psychological violence and harassment at work during their working life. (survey, lifetime (ever), 2021 data) ¹⁹
• In the Americas, 29.3% of employed people said they had experienced psychological violence and harassment at work during their working life, in the global survey of 2021. (survey, lifetime (ever), 2021 data) ²⁰
• In Africa, 20.2% of employed people said they had experienced psychological violence and harassment at work during their working life, in the global survey of 2021. (survey, lifetime (ever), 2021 data) ²⁰
• In the Arab States, 11.4% of employed people said they had experienced psychological violence and harassment at work during their working life, in a global survey. (survey, lifetime (ever), 2021 data) ²⁰
• In 2021, 22.8% of employed people aged fifteen and over worldwide, about seven hundred and forty-three million people, had experienced physical, psychological or sexual violence and harassment at work during their working life. The figure comes from the International Labour Organization's global survey. (survey, lifetime (ever), 2021 data) ²⁰
• Among employed women worldwide who had experienced violence or harassment at work in the past five years, 60.7% had told someone about it. (survey, 2021 data) ²⁰
• Among employed men worldwide who had experienced violence or harassment at work in the past five years, 50.1% had told someone about it. (survey, 2021 data) ²⁰
• Across the European Union, 12.5% of workers experienced some form of adverse social behaviour at work in 2021. The survey counted some behaviours over the past month and others over the past twelve months. It covers verbal abuse, threats, unwanted sexual attention, and bullying, harassment or violence. (survey, 2021 data) ²¹
• Workers in England aged sixteen to seventy who were bullied or harassed at work in the past year had about 2.65 times the adjusted odds of a common mental disorder. (survey, past 12 months, 2014 data) ⁵
• Among workers aged sixteen to seventy in England who reported bullying at work in the past year, 53.6% named a line manager as the person responsible. (survey, past 12 months, 2014 data) ⁵
• In a national survey in France, 27.7% of employees aged fifteen to sixty-five, in the same job for a year, reported at least one form of bullying by other employees of their company. (survey, past 12 months, 2013 data) ²²
• In a nationwide panel in Germany, 17.1% of employees aged thirty-one to sixty who paid social security contributions said they frequently felt unjustly criticised, hassled or shown up by co-workers or superiors. (survey, 2011/2012 data) ²³
• In Australia, harassment or workplace bullying made up 33.2% of serious workers' compensation claims for mental stress in 2023-24, according to Safe Work Australia. (administrative records, 2023-24 data) ²⁴

National figures

National and local school surveys used different questions and time frames. Several covered one city or region, and each figure names its population.

• Among eleven sub-Saharan countries, Sierra Leone had the highest share of in-school adolescents bullied in the past month, at 54.6%. (survey, at one point in time, 2010-2017 data) ¹¹
• In Mauritius, 22.2% of in-school adolescents had been bullied in the past month, the lowest of eleven sub-Saharan countries. (survey, at one point in time, 2010-2017 data) ¹¹
• In every province of South Africa, more than 30% of primary school children aged ten to twelve said other children had called them unkind names two or more times in the past month. (survey, at one point in time, published 2021, fieldwork year not stated) ²⁵
• In South Africa, the share of primary school children aged ten to twelve hit by other children two or more times in the past month reached 33.3% in the Free State. (survey, at one point in time, published 2021, fieldwork year not stated) ²⁵
• In a national household survey in Kenya, 4.1% of adolescents aged ten to seventeen reported being bullied in the past three months. (survey, at one point in time, 2021 data) ¹⁷
• In the United States, 15.0% of high school students were bullied on school property in the year before the 2021 survey. (survey, past 12 months, 2021 data) ¹³
• In the United States, 22.0% of high school students experienced some form of bullying in the year before the 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. (survey, past 12 months, 2021 data) ¹³
• In Brazil, 23.0% of students aged thirteen to seventeen had been bullied two or more times in the past month in 2019. (survey, at one point in time, 2019 data) ¹⁴
• A nationwide survey in China found that 10.9% of middle and high school students were victims of school bullying, with a further small share both bullied and bullying others. (survey, at one point in time, published 2022, fieldwork year not stated) ²⁶
• In a nationally representative survey in Australia, 13.3% of young people aged eleven to seventeen had been bullied in the past year. (survey, past 12 months, published 2017, fieldwork year not stated) ²⁷
• In schools in Al Ain City, the United Arab Emirates, 36.7% of students in grades six to eight reported being bullied at school in 2022. (survey, at one point in time, 2022 data) ²⁸
• In one city in Japan, 16.6% of students in grades four to nine had been bullied at least two or three times a month over the past two or three months. (survey, at one point in time, published 2019, fieldwork year not stated) ²⁹
• Among school going adolescents in Chandigarh, India, 16% had been bullied without bullying others. (survey, at one point in time, published 2020, fieldwork year not stated) ³⁰
• In England and Wales, 34.9% of children aged ten to fifteen experienced in-person bullying behaviour in the past year, in the 2022/23 Crime Survey. (survey, past 12 months, 2022/23 data) ¹⁵
• A meta-analysis of studies in Chinese communities found that 22.7% of school aged young people had been bullied, in person or online. (pooled from prevalence studies, at one point in time, published 2022) ¹⁶
• Among school going adolescents in Chandigarh, India, 4.3% had both bullied others and been bullied. (survey, at one point in time, published 2020, fieldwork year not stated) ³⁰
• In Uruguay, 16.9% of fifteen-year-old students reported being bullied in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey of 2015, as reported by UNESCO. (survey, 2015 data) ⁸
• In Colombia, 22.1% of fifteen-year-old students reported being bullied in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey of 2015, as reported by UNESCO. (survey, 2015 data) ⁸
• In Jamaica, almost 30% of children said they feared going to school because of bullying, in a national study published in 2015 and cited by UNICEF. (survey, at one point in time, published 2015, fieldwork year not stated) ⁷
• In Scotland, 10.6% of students taking part in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) reported some form of bullying at least once a week in 2022. (survey, 2022 data) ³¹

National figures side by side

These surveys asked different questions over different periods. Read each row with its label, and do not rank the countries.

How to read these figures

A past-month figure and a past-year figure answer different questions; past-year figures are usually higher.

Some surveys count any bullying; others count being bullied two or more times. The lower threshold gives higher figures.

Links between bullying and depression come from studies that follow young people over time. They show strong links, and the researchers judge bullying a likely cause, but many other things matter too.

Several national figures come from one city, region or school survey and may not hold for the whole country.

People can stop bullying, and its effects can ease with support. Schools and workplaces with clear policies, adults who take reports seriously and help for those involved, including young people who bully others, all make a difference.

If bullying has affected your mood, sleep or confidence, or your child's, a psychologist or counsellor can help. Our guide on how to find the right therapist explains what to look for. If you are in distress right now, see our helplines and crisis lines worldwide.

Cite this page: TherapyRoute. Bullying and cyberbullying statistics worldwide. https://www.therapyroute.com/article/bullying-and-cyberbullying-statistics-worldwide-by-therapyroute. Last updated 15 October 2026.

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