Teacher wellbeing is shaped by more than individual resilience. Recent international, national and district-level surveys connect wellbeing with stress, working hours, administrative demands, classroom behaviour, school support and intentions to leave. The figures below cover different populations and measurement periods, so they should be read as complementary indicators rather than one single global estimate.
Contents
- Current stress and mental health
- Workload and working time
- Work-life balance and health impacts
- Classroom behaviour and administrative pressure
- Support and protective factors
- Differences between groups and places
- Wellbeing and teacher retention
Current stress and mental health
The OECD’s Thriving in teaching: Results from TALIS 2024 reports that 19% of lower-secondary teachers across participating OECD education systems experienced stress “a lot” in their work during TALIS 2024. The international average conceals substantial variation: more than 30% reported this level of stress in Australia, Bahrain, Costa Rica, Malta and New Zealand, as well as Alberta, Canada. By contrast, fewer than 5% did so in Albania, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Viet Nam.
Some systems also reported a sizable group experiencing no work stress at all. Around 50% of lower-secondary teachers in Albania, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan said they did not experience stress at all in their work. These results describe reported work stress, not a clinical diagnosis, and country comparisons should account for differences in context and survey responses.
TALIS 2024 also measured perceived health effects. Across OECD education systems, 10% of lower-secondary teachers said their job negatively affected their mental health “a lot,” while 8% said it negatively affected their physical health “a lot.” These measures are narrower than overall stress: a teacher can report substantial stress without selecting the highest category for a health impact.
The January 2024 RAND State of the American Teacher survey found higher levels among U.S. public K–12 teachers. Frequent job-related stress was reported by 59%, and 60% reported burnout. A further 22% said they had difficulty coping with job-related stress. RAND also found that about twice as many teachers as comparable working adults reported frequent job-related stress or burnout. These are U.S. survey estimates for January 2024, not international averages.
A separate two-district U.S. study covering the 2022–2023 school year found moderate to severe stress among 76.0% of 725 school employees. In the same study, 31.2% reported clinically significant anxiety symptoms and 49.5% reported clinically significant depressive symptoms. The sample was drawn from two districts, so it should not be treated as a national estimate for all educators.
Workload and working time
TALIS 2024 gives a useful international picture of how teachers’ scheduled work is distributed. Lower-secondary teachers across OECD education systems reported an average of 23 hours per week spent teaching and 7 hours per week preparing lessons. Teaching time and preparation time do not represent the full working week; other duties, administration, assessment and communication are measured separately or may fall outside these two figures.
The Working lives of teachers and leaders wave 3 research report provides more detailed 2024 evidence for England. Teachers reported 48.1 working hours per week on average, compared with 49.4 in 2023 and 48.7 in 2022. Full-time teachers reported 51.2 hours per week, while school leaders reported 56.6 hours.
Among full-time teachers in England, 39% reported working 50–59 hours in their reference week and 17% reported working 60–69 hours. Full-time teachers with teaching responsibilities spent 23.3 hours teaching in that week. The figure was 25.3 hours in primary schools and 21.5 hours in secondary schools.
| England working-time measure | Result | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Teachers’ average weekly hours | 48.1 | 2024 |
| Full-time teachers’ average weekly hours | 51.2 | 2024 |
| School leaders’ average weekly hours | 56.6 | 2024 |
| Full-time teachers teaching, reference week | 23.3 | 2024 |
| Primary full-time teachers teaching, reference week | 25.3 | 2024 |
| Secondary full-time teachers teaching, reference week | 21.5 | 2024 |
Only 22% of teachers and leaders in England agreed that they had an acceptable workload in 2024, although this was up from 17% in both 2022 and 2023. At the same time, 49% said their workload was not acceptable and that they lacked sufficient control over it. The improvement in the first measure does not remove the continuing majority experience captured by the second.
Work-life balance and health impacts
Across OECD education systems, only 11% of lower-secondary teachers in TALIS 2024 said their work left them time for personal life “a lot.” Fewer than 5% reported this in Shanghai and Singapore, while more than 20% did so in Albania, Denmark, Hungary, the Netherlands and Uzbekistan. These figures measure the strongest response category and should not be read as the share with any personal time.
England’s 2024 results show a related full-time and part-time difference. Among full-time teachers and leaders, 74% said their job did not leave enough time for personal life, compared with 58% of part-time staff. Overall, 63% said their job negatively affected their mental health and 49% said it negatively affected their physical health.
Age differences were also visible in England. Ninety-three percent of teachers and leaders under 35 reported experiencing work stress in 2024, compared with 82% of those aged 55 and over. These figures indicate a difference in reported stress by age group; they do not establish that age itself caused the difference.
Work-life support from managers was reported by 63% of teachers and leaders in England in 2024, up from 61% in both 2022 and 2023. The measure concerns whether a manager was considerate of work-life balance, which is distinct from whether workload was acceptable or whether staff had enough personal time.
Classroom behaviour and administrative pressure
Earlier international evidence helps identify specific sources of pressure. In TALIS 2018, 49% of lower-secondary teachers identified too much administrative work as a source of stress “quite a bit” or “a lot.” Forty-four percent identified being held responsible for students’ achievement, and 41% identified keeping up with changing government requirements. Among school leaders, 69% identified too much administrative work as a source of stress at those levels.
The OECD’s What TALIS 2018 implies for policy also reported that 20% of female teachers and teachers under 30 experienced a lot of work stress, compared with 15% of male teachers and teachers aged 50 or over. In that 2018 survey, 7% of lower-secondary teachers said their job negatively affected their mental health “a lot,” and 6% said it negatively affected their physical health “a lot.” These are legacy measures from TALIS 2018 and were not independently verified here.
Classroom interactions matter alongside workload. In TALIS 2024, teachers who reported being intimidated or verbally abused by students as a major stress source had job satisfaction about 50% of a standard deviation lower on average. In Hungary, teachers who identified intimidation or verbal abuse as a major stress source had lesson-aim fulfilment about 30% of a standard deviation lower. In Chile, teachers who identified maintaining classroom discipline as a major stress source had lesson-aim fulfilment almost 50% of a standard deviation lower.
England’s 2024 teacher survey provides operational measures of these pressures: 60% of classroom teachers and middle leaders said they spent too much time following up behaviour incidents, while 74% said they spent too much time on general administrative work. The two findings point to separate but overlapping demands on time and attention.
Support and protective factors
Support is widespread but not universal in England. In 2024, 64% of teachers and leaders agreed that their manager supported their wellbeing, and 58% agreed that their school provided access to teacher support schemes or wellbeing programmes. Teachers were less likely than leaders to report either form of support: 62% versus 78% for manager support, and 54% versus 79% for access to wellbeing programmes.
Seventeen percent of teachers said their school did not provide access to teacher support schemes or wellbeing programmes. Among returning wave-2 panellists, 64% said their wellbeing support was unchanged in wave 3, 18% said it improved and 17% said it worsened between 2023 and 2024. These results describe perceived access and change, not whether a programme improved health outcomes.
Leadership and the physical workplace also appear in the available measures. In 2024, 67% of headteachers and leading practitioners said their governing body supported staff wellbeing. In the School and college voice: May 2026 survey, 33% of primary teachers, 32% of secondary teachers and 41% of special-school teachers said school-building condition had a positive impact on wellbeing at work. The corresponding negative-impact figures were 42%, 46% and 40%.
Differences between groups and places
The figures show why “teacher wellbeing” should not be treated as one uniform experience. International stress reports ranged from fewer than 5% in four TALIS 2024 systems to more than 30% in several others, while around half of teachers in three systems reported no work stress at all. Work-life balance also varied: fewer than 5% in Shanghai and Singapore said work left them personal time “a lot,” compared with more than 20% in five other systems.
Within England, younger staff reported more work stress in 2024, while full-time staff were more likely than part-time staff to say work left too little time for personal life. In TALIS 2018, teachers under 30 and female teachers reported a lot of work stress at 20%, compared with 15% among teachers aged 50 or over and male teachers respectively. The categories overlap in the source reporting, so the comparisons should not be combined into a single estimate.
The two-district U.S. study also identified a socioeconomic association. Financial insecurity was associated with higher anxiety prevalence, with a prevalence ratio of 1.18 and a 95% confidence interval of 1.10–1.27. It was also associated with higher depression prevalence, with a prevalence ratio of 1.38 and a 95% confidence interval of 1.19–1.60. These are associations from a cross-sectional study, not evidence that financial insecurity caused the symptoms.
Wellbeing and teacher retention
Wellbeing measures are closely connected to whether educators expect to remain in teaching. In TALIS 2018, teachers who reported a lot of work stress were almost twice as likely to say they would stop working as teachers within five years. This is an intention measure, not a count of actual departures.
England’s 2024 evidence links the same issue to stated reasons for leaving state education. Among teachers and leaders considering leaving, 90% cited stress or poor wellbeing, including work-life balance, as an important reason. The result applies to those considering leaving, not to all teachers and leaders.
The earlier Ofsted Teacher well-being at work in schools and further education providers report found low wellbeing at work among 31% of teachers in its 2018 survey, compared with 18% of senior leaders. Together with the more recent workload, stress and support figures, this suggests that retention conversations need to address working conditions and organisational support as well as individual coping.