About 1 in 20 kids aged 5–11 seem very worried every day
Each year the CDC's National Health Interview Survey asks parents how often their child seems very anxious, nervous, or worried. Here is the share who answered "daily", by age group, from 2019 to 2025.
Share of children, % (parent report). Shaded band: 95% confidence interval. Source: CDC, National Center for Health Statistics — NHIS Child Summary Health Statistics · Public domain (U.S. Government work). Chart: Raising Stoics — free to embed with credit.
What the data shows
- For children aged 5–11, the share who seem very worried every day has stayed between about 4 and 6 percent every year since 2019 — roughly one child in twenty. The year-to-year wiggles are within the survey's margin of error.
- Teenagers (12–17) rose from 5.7% in 2019 to 7.8% in 2022, then came back down to 5.6% in 2025.
- "Daily worry" is a parent's impression, not a diagnosis. Many more children worry sometimes; this is the group for whom it's an everyday thing.
What it means for parents
If your child is one of the one-in-twenty, they're not unusual, and there are well-tested approaches for this age — step-by-step brave practice (a "fear ladder") is at the heart of the parent-led approaches that have been tested with 4–7 year olds. If worry is stopping ordinary life, or getting worse over weeks, it's worth talking to your pediatrician.
Show the data as a table
| Year | 5-11 years | 12-17 years |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 4.8% (3.9–5.7) | 5.7% (4.9–6.7) |
| 2020 | 5.6% (4.3–7.2) | 6.1% (4.9–7.4) |
| 2021 | 4.4% (3.5–5.4) | 6.1% (5.1–7.2) |
| 2022 | 5.2% (4.2–6.3) | 7.8% (6.6–9.1) |
| 2023 | 4.8% (3.9–5.8) | 7.6% (6.6–8.8) |
| 2024 | 4.3% (3.5–5.2) | 6.8% (5.8–7.9) |
| 2025 | 5.1% (4.1–6.4) | 5.6% (4.5–6.8) |
Source and method
Source: CDC, National Center for Health Statistics — NHIS Child Summary Health Statistics. License: Public domain (U.S. Government work).
Survey question: "How often does [child's name] seem very anxious, nervous, or worried? Would you say: daily, weekly, monthly, a few times a year, or never?"
Percentages and 95% confidence intervals as published by NCHS, not recalculated. The shaded band around each line is the confidence interval. Ages 5–17 only: the question isn't asked about younger children.
Courage, the Bravery Ladder and True or Made Up (lessons 9, 10 and 12) are built on step-by-step brave practice.