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Americans are anxious but few seek therapy

Topline

About half of U.S. adults (51%) feel worried, nervous or anxious at least weekly, combining 23% who feel that way daily and 28% weekly. Just 10% never do.


Professional care reaches a much smaller share. 22% of adults received counseling or therapy from a mental health professional in the past 12 months.

Topline

23% of U.S. adults feel worried, nervous or anxious daily and another 28% weekly; just 10% never do.

How often do you feel worried, nervous, or anxious?

  • Weekly 27.6%
  • A few times a year 25.5%
  • Daily 23.3%
  • Monthly 13.5%
  • Never 10.1%

2026 · base n 1,690 · +/- 2.8%

What do Americans from both parties agree on? AI Regulation

View source data

Frequent anxiety is widespread

About half of U.S. adults (51%) feel worried, nervous or anxious at least weekly: 23% feel that way daily and another 28% weekly.

Another 14% feel anxious monthly and 26% a few times a year. Just 10% say they never feel worried, nervous or anxious.

The experience skews young. 43% of adults under 30 report feeling anxious weekly, compared with 18% of adults 65 and older.

Headline

22% of U.S. adults received counseling or therapy from a mental health professional in the past 12 months.

During the past 12 months, did you receive counseling or therapy from a mental health professional such as a psychiatrist, psychologist, psychiatric nurse, or clinical social worker?

77.7% no

2026 · base n 1,690 · +/- 2.8%

What do Americans from both parties agree on? AI Regulation

View source data

Women report daily anxiety more often than men

27% of women say they feel worried, nervous or anxious daily, compared with 19% of men.

Therapy use also varies across groups. 29% of Black adults received counseling or therapy in the past year, the highest share among the racial groups measured, and by region the share runs from 25% in the Midwest to 20% in the West.

Far fewer received professional care

About one in five U.S. adults (22%) received counseling or therapy from a mental health professional, such as a psychiatrist, psychologist, psychiatric nurse or clinical social worker, in the past 12 months.

Use follows the same age line as anxiety itself: 32% of adults under 30 received counseling or therapy in the past year, compared with 10% of adults 65 and older.

Methodology

Full methodology
Mode
Verasight panel recruited via random address-based sampling, random person-to-person text messaging, and dynamic online targeting
Population
US adults age 18+
Field dates
2026-06-18 → 2026-06-19
Base (unweighted)
1,690
Margin of error
+/- 2.8%
Module
AI Regulation
Sponsor
Verasight
Weight variable
weight
Weighting targets
age, race/ethnicity, sex, income, education, region, metropolitan status

Sources

[1]

Citation

What do Americans from both parties agree on? AI Regulation, fielded June 18-19, 2026, N=1,690 US adults age 18+, +/- 2.8%.

https://reports.verasight.io/r/june-2026-ai-survey

Verasight survey methodology

How Verasight conducts surveys.

This page describes the Verasight general survey contract, separate from how the Data Library packages it. When a wave report is published, its field dates, sample sizes, and module breakdown are listed in that report.

Mode
Verasight panel recruited via random address-based sampling, random person-to-person text messaging, and dynamic online targeting.
Population
US adults age 18+.
Sample design
Surveys are run as omnibus or single-topic waves. Omnibus waves are split into modules with their own respondent set, typically around one thousand respondents per module.
Field window
Each wave specifies its own field dates. Most omnibus waves field across roughly two weeks.
Weighting
Per-module weighting to CPS targets including age, race and ethnicity, sex, income, education, region, and metropolitan status.
Partisanship benchmark
Pew Research Center's NPORS benchmarking surveys, three-year running average.
Vote benchmark
2024 presidential vote population benchmarks.
Margin of error
Typically about plus or minus 3.4 to 3.6 percent per module at standard module sizes. Question-level MoE is recomputed when a base shrinks materially below the module baseline.
Reporting
The canonical report hub is reports.verasight.io. Verified legacy reports remain on their original hosts, and unpublished reports are marked pending.
Transparency
Verasight is a member of the American Association for Public Opinion Research Transparency Initiative.

The canonical report hub is reports.verasight.io; older reports may remain on verified legacy hosts.