Phobia statistics worldwide

Updated October 2026

Phobias are among the most common mental health conditions, and most people with one get no treatment in a given year. The key figures below show how many people have one, from the World Health Organization's World Mental Health surveys ¹.

A phobia is an intense, lasting fear of a particular object or situation, out of proportion to any real danger. People with a phobia often go out of their way to avoid what they fear, and the avoidance can shape daily life.

There are three main kinds. Specific phobia is a fear of one thing, such as animals, heights, blood or flying. Social anxiety disorder, once called social phobia, is an intense fear of other people's scrutiny, judgement and embarrassment. Agoraphobia is a fear of places where escape or help might be hard to reach, such as crowds, public transport or being far from home.

Most figures here come from community surveys in which trained interviewers asked everyone the same set of questions. They judged the answers against DSM-IV, the fourth edition of the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual. Each figure names the people it counts, the period it covers and the place. A lifetime figure counts anyone who has ever had the condition. A past-year figure counts only recent cases.

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.

Specific phobia worldwide

The World Mental Health surveys asked the same questions in many countries, so their figures are easier to compare than figures from separate national surveys, though differences in how people report fear still matter. Specific phobia is one of the most common mental disorders, and in these surveys it was more common in women than in men.

• Across women in 25 surveys in 22 countries, 9.8% had had specific phobia at some point in their lives. (survey, lifetime (ever), 2001-2011 data) ¹
• Across men in 25 surveys in 22 countries, 4.9% had had specific phobia at some point in their lives. (survey, lifetime (ever), 2001-2011 data) ¹
• Of adults who had ever had specific phobia in 25 surveys in 22 countries, 60.5% had also had at least one other mental disorder in their lives. (survey, lifetime (ever), 2001-2011 data) ¹
• Among adults in 25 surveys in 22 countries who had specific phobia and another mental disorder, the phobia had started first in 72.6% of cases. (survey, lifetime (ever), 2001-2011 data) ¹

What people fear

The surveys asked about several kinds of fear. Many people with specific phobia reported more than one.

Social anxiety disorder

The same survey series also measured social anxiety disorder, with more countries taking part. Rates were highest in high income countries and lowest in low and lower-middle income countries. The researchers found a similar pattern of early onset and impairment across regions ². Onset means the time when a condition first starts.

• Across adults in 28 surveys in many countries, 2.4% had social anxiety disorder in the past year. (survey, past 12 months, 2001-2012 data) ²
• In high income countries, 5.5% of adults had had social anxiety disorder at some point in their lives. (survey, lifetime (ever), 2001-2012 data) ²
• In low and lower-middle income countries, 1.6% of adults had had social anxiety disorder at some point in their lives. (survey, lifetime (ever), 2001-2012 data) ²
• Of adults in 28 surveys in many countries who had ever had social anxiety disorder, 60.2% still had it in the past year. (survey, past 12 months, 2001-2012 data) ²
• On average, adults with social anxiety disorder in the past year in 28 surveys in many countries lost 24.7 days of work or normal activities to the disorder in that year. (survey, past 12 months, 2001-2012 data) ²

Agoraphobia

DSM-5, the current edition of the same manual, made agoraphobia a diagnosis in its own right. Before that, DSM-IV tied it closely to panic disorder. The worldwide figures below use the newer criteria. National surveys that used DSM-IV count agoraphobia without panic disorder separately, so their figures are not directly comparable.

• Across adults in surveys in 27 countries, 1.0% had agoraphobia in the past year, by DSM-5 criteria. (survey, past 12 months, published 2019, fieldwork year not stated) ³
• In South Africa, 9.8% of adults aged 18 and older had had agoraphobia without panic disorder at some point in their lives, one of the most common disorders in the survey. (survey, lifetime (ever), 2003-2004 data) ⁴
• In South Africa, 4.8% of adults aged 18 and older had agoraphobia without panic disorder in the past year. (survey, past 12 months, 2003-2004 data) ⁴
• In Australia, 4.5% of people aged 16 to 85 had agoraphobia in the past year. (survey, past 12 months, 2020-2022 data) ⁵

When phobias start

Phobias usually begin early in life. Specific phobia often starts in childhood, and in most people who also develop another mental disorder, the phobia came first. The median age of onset is the age by which half of those affected had developed the condition.

• Among adults in Lebanon, the estimated median age of onset of specific phobia was 11, the lowest of the disorders the study compared. (survey, 2002-2003 data) ⁶

Impairment and treatment

Many people live with a phobia for years without help. Treatment was far less common in lower income countries.

Finding help that works

For social anxiety disorder, a review in The Lancet Psychiatry ⁸ pooled randomised trials and compared each treatment with a waiting list and, for some, with a psychological placebo.

CBT, cognitive behavioural therapy, is a talking therapy that works on fearful thoughts and on facing feared situations step by step. Psychodynamic psychotherapy is a talking therapy that explores feelings and relationship patterns, including those rooted in earlier life. SSRIs and SNRIs are two widely used groups of antidepressant medicines. A meta-analysis like this combines the results of many studies into one figure. Its results are effect sizes, here a measure called the standardised mean difference. A figure below zero means less anxiety than with the comparison, and the further it is from zero, the bigger the benefit. A psychological placebo is a comparison session made to look like therapy but without its active parts.

Against a psychological placebo, individual cognitive behavioural therapy still helped, though by less than against a waiting list ⁸.

For treated people with social anxiety disorder, the World Mental Health surveys estimated that more than nine in ten would find treatment they considered helpful by trying up to seven professionals. Only about three in ten kept going that long.

• For adults with social anxiety disorder in 101 trials, individual cognitive behavioural therapy reduced social anxiety more than a waiting list (standardised mean difference -1.19). (meta-analysis of trials, published 2014) ⁸
• For adults with social anxiety disorder in 101 trials, individual cognitive behavioural therapy reduced social anxiety more than a psychological placebo (standardised mean difference -0.56). (meta-analysis of trials, published 2014) ⁸
• For adults with social anxiety disorder in 101 trials, group cognitive behavioural therapy reduced social anxiety more than a waiting list (standardised mean difference -0.92). (meta-analysis of trials, published 2014) ⁸
• For adults with social anxiety disorder in 101 trials, psychodynamic psychotherapy reduced social anxiety more than a waiting list (standardised mean difference -0.62). (meta-analysis of trials, published 2014) ⁸
• For adults with social anxiety disorder in 101 trials, SSRI and SNRI antidepressants reduced social anxiety more than a waiting list (standardised mean difference -0.91). (meta-analysis of trials, published 2014) ⁸
• About 1 in 5 adults who had ever had social anxiety disorder in 27 surveys in 24 countries ever got treatment for it. (survey, lifetime (ever), published 2022, fieldwork year not stated) ⁹
• Of treated adults who had ever had social anxiety disorder in 27 surveys in 24 countries, 65.1% ever received treatment that they found helpful. (survey, lifetime (ever), published 2022, fieldwork year not stated) ⁹
• Among treated adults with social anxiety disorder, the estimated chance of finding helpful treatment rose to 92.2% for those who kept trying with up to seven professionals. (survey, lifetime (ever), published 2022, fieldwork year not stated) ⁹
• Among adults treated for social anxiety disorder in WHO surveys in twenty-four countries, most tried another professional after an unhelpful one. Even so, the estimated chance of carrying on through as many as seven professionals was only 30.2%. (survey, lifetime (ever), published 2022, fieldwork year not stated) ⁹

National figures

These national surveys used different interviews, criteria and time frames. Some covered one city or region only, and each figure names its population.

• In the United States, 8.7% of English-speaking adults aged 18 and over in a national household survey had a specific phobia in the previous twelve months. (survey, past 12 months, 2001-2003 data) ¹⁰
• In the United States, 6.8% of English-speaking adults aged 18 and over in a national household survey had social phobia in the previous twelve months. (survey, past 12 months, 2001-2003 data) ¹⁰
• In Australia, 7.3% of people aged 16 to 85 had social phobia in the past year. (survey, past 12 months, 2020-2022 data) ⁵
• In Australia, 9.2% of females aged 16 to 85 had social phobia in the past year. (survey, past 12 months, 2020-2022 data) ⁵
• In Australia, 5.2% of males aged 16 to 85 had social phobia in the past year. (survey, past 12 months, 2020-2022 data) ⁵
• In England, an interview survey run in 2023-4 found a phobia in 2.6% of adults, based on symptoms in the past week. (survey, 2023-4 data) ⁷
• In Iraq, 4.2% of adults had had specific phobia at some point in their lives, one of the most common disorders in the survey. (survey, lifetime (ever), 2006-2007 data) ¹¹
• In Iraq, 16.4% of adults with specific phobia in the past year had a serious form of it. (survey, past 12 months, 2006-2007 data) ¹¹
• In Japan, 2.3% of adults aged 20 and over in eleven Japanese communities had specific phobia in the past year, the most common disorder in that period. (survey, past 12 months, 2002-2006 data) ¹²
• In Japan, 68.0% of adults aged 20 and over in eleven Japanese communities who had ever had specific phobia still had it in the past year. (survey, past 12 months, 2002-2006 data) ¹²
• In Brazil, 10.6% of adults in the São Paulo metropolitan area had specific phobia in the past year. (survey, past 12 months, 2005-2007 data) ¹³
• In South Africa, 43% of adults aged 18 and older with social phobia in the past year had a severe form of it. (survey, past 12 months, 2003-2004 data) ⁴

National figures side by side

These rows count different things over different periods, in surveys run years apart. Read each row with its label, and do not rank the countries.

How to read these figures

Lifetime, past-year and past-week figures answer different questions. A lifetime figure is always the largest, because it counts anyone who has ever had the condition.

Survey interviews ask people to recall fears and when they began. Recall can blur over the years, and people in different places may describe fear differently.

The researchers who ran the World Mental Health surveys note that differences between countries may partly reflect how people recognise, describe and report symptoms, not only how common phobias are.

Several surveys covered one city or region rather than a whole country. Each figure names its population, and none of these figures should be read as a national total unless it says so.

England's survey uses a different interview from the World Mental Health surveys and asks about the past week, so its figures are not directly comparable with the others.

Our guides to specific phobias, social anxiety disorder and agoraphobia explain each condition in more depth.

If a fear is limiting your life, a psychologist or counsellor can help you understand it and plan treatment. 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 suicide hotlines worldwide.

Cite this page: TherapyRoute. Phobia statistics worldwide. https://www.therapyroute.com/article/phobia-statistics-worldwide-by-therapyroute. Last updated 23 October 2026.

References

1. [1] The cross-national epidemiology of specific phobia in the World Mental Health Surveys. Psychological Medicine (Wardenaar et al.), 2017 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
2. [2] The cross-national epidemiology of social anxiety disorder: Data from the World Mental Health Survey Initiative. BMC Medicine (Stein et al.), 2017 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
3. [3] A comparison of DSM-5 and DSM-IV agoraphobia in the World Mental Health Surveys. Depression and Anxiety (Roest et al.), 2019 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
4. [4] The South African Stress and Health (SASH) study: 12-month and lifetime prevalence of common mental disorders. South African Medical Journal (Herman et al.), 2009 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
5. [5] National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, 2020-2022. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 5 October 2023 abs.gov.au.
6. [6] Lifetime prevalence of mental disorders in Lebanon: first onset, treatment, and exposure to war. PLoS Medicine (Karam et al.), 2008 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
7. [7] Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey: Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing, England, 2023/4: Common mental health conditions. NHS England (Liubertiene et al.), 27 November 2025 digital.nhs.uk.
8. [8] Psychological and pharmacological interventions for social anxiety disorder in adults: a systematic review and network meta-analysis. The Lancet Psychiatry (Mayo-Wilson et al.), 2014 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
9. [9] Perceived helpfulness of treatment for social anxiety disorder: findings from the WHO World Mental Health Surveys. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology (Bruffaerts et al.), 2022 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
10. [10] Prevalence, Severity, and Comorbidity of Twelve-month DSM-IV Disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R). Archives of General Psychiatry (Kessler et al.), 2005 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
11. [11] The prevalence and correlates of DSM-IV disorders in the Iraq Mental Health Survey (IMHS). World Psychiatry (Alhasnawi et al.), 2009 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
12. [12] Lifetime and 12-month prevalence, severity and unmet need for treatment of common mental disorders in Japan: results from the final dataset of World Mental Health Japan Survey. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences (Ishikawa et al.), 2016 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
13. [13] Mental disorders in megacities: findings from the São Paulo megacity mental health survey, Brazil. PLoS One (Andrade et al.), 2012 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.