Phone Anxiety Statistics 2026: How Common Is Phone Anxiety?

In 2026, phone anxiety isn’t a niche quirk — it’s a measurable behavior shift. Recent surveys show large shares of young adults avoid calls, keep their phone on silent, or dread answering—especially for work calls, appointments, and customer service.

This article compiles the most credible phone anxiety statistics available up to late 2025 (the latest large releases we could find), explains what they mean, and links to practical next steps.

Key Phone Anxiety Statistics Summary (2026 snapshot)

These are the “headline” numbers people cite when they ask how common is phone anxiety:

• 49% of young adults (18–25) in a Belgium study said they actively avoid phone calls due to fear or lack of confidence.
• In that same Belgium sample, 21% said they never answer calls at all, and 55% keep their phone on silent.
• A UK survey (ages 16–29) found 30% “fear using the phone” at work (often described as “telephobia”).
• A UK workplace survey reported 62% of employees said they avoided answering a work call in the last 12 months due to nerves/anxiety.
• Older, still-cited office research found 76% of millennials vs 40% of baby boomers reported anxiety-induced thoughts when the phone rings.

What to take away: the exact percentage depends on the definition (avoidance, fear, dread, or clinical-level phobia). But across multiple samples, “I avoid calls” is common enough to affect workplaces, healthcare access, and basic life admin.

Phone Anxiety Statistics by Generation

Because studies use different age bands, the cleanest way is to compare closest-available survey cuts, and clearly label them.

Generation table (best available survey-aligned figures)

Important nuance: “Gen Z = XX%” isn’t one global truth. Some surveys ask “Do you dread calls?” others ask “Have you avoided a work call due to anxiety?” Those produce different numbers.

Gen Z: the strongest 2025 signals are avoidance + silence behaviors

The 2025 Belgium research is striking because it measures behavior, not just feelings:

• 49% avoid calls;
• 55% keep the phone on silent;
• 21% never answer.

That matches what many businesses observe today: calls are treated as “high-friction,” especially when the caller is unknown (banks, clinics, delivery drivers, insurers).

Real scenario: a 23-year-old needs to call a dental clinic to reschedule. The phone rings, voicemail picks up, they hang up, then spend 20 minutes searching for an online form that doesn’t exist. The anxiety cost becomes a time cost.

Millennials: still anxious — but often for “efficiency” reasons

The widely-cited office-worker research shows high millennial anxiety reactions to ringing phones. More recent workplace commentary frames part of this as efficiency + interruption: calls are disruptive, hard to “draft,” and hard to exit gracefully.

Real scenario: a 34-year-old product manager postpones calling the internet provider because they expect IVR menus + hold music + upsells, and they can’t control the timeline.

Gen X and Boomers: lower anxiety, higher “phone as normal”

Boomers are consistently less likely to report “ring anxiety” in the older office-worker data. But “less anxious” doesn’t mean “loves robocalls.” Older cohorts often answer calls with different concerns (spam/scams), not necessarily the same “performance anxiety.”

Phone Anxiety Statistics by Industry

There’s a catch: very few 2025–2026 datasets publish phone-anxiety rates by industry the way they do for burnout or stress. What we do have is workplace surveys that measure work-call avoidance and show it’s widespread.

So here’s the practical industry view: phone anxiety is most damaging where calls are unavoidable and stakes feel high.

“Phone-heavy” roles where anxiety creates real business risk

• Healthcare front desks & clinics: Calls mean triage, scheduling, upset patients, sensitive info. A single anxious receptionist can turn into missed appointments and patient churn.
• Customer support / service businesses: (plumbers, locksmiths, salons, repair shops) Calls are the conversion funnel. If staff avoid calls, you literally lose revenue.
• Sales & recruiting: Cold outreach and follow-ups require phone confidence. Avoidance shows up as “email-only pipelines.”
• Legal / finance admin: Calls often include conflict, billing, and negotiation — high anxiety triggers.

“Phone-light” roles where anxiety is hidden but still costly

• Engineering / design / ops: People can often route everything to Slack/email — until they need to call a vendor, landlord, insurer, or airline.
• Remote-first teams: Less practice, more dread. Some workplace polls explicitly link phone anxiety to remote/hybrid shifts.

Internal link: If your readers want workplace coping tactics, send them to Phone Anxiety at Work.

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Trends Over Time: Is Phone Anxiety Getting Worse?

We don’t have a single global tracker that measures “phone anxiety” every year like inflation. But multiple indicators point in the same direction:

1. Avoidance behaviors are high in recent youth surveys (silent phones, never answering, avoiding calls).
2. Workplace fear is now measured in mainstream reports (e.g., 30% of UK 16–29s fearing phone use at work).
3. Training exists because employers are paying for it — colleges and workplace trainers are explicitly offering phone-confidence support.

A reasonable interpretation: it’s not that humans suddenly became “weaker.” It’s that the default communication stack changed:

• Messaging and forms are draftable and editable
• Calls are real-time, unpredictable, and full of micro-skills (open, transitions, ending)
• Spam/scams increased the perceived “threat level” of unknown numbers

Global Comparison: Phone Anxiety Isn’t Just a US/UK Thing

Here’s a simple cross-country snapshot using the clearest, publishable numbers:

Why it matters: if your product, clinic, or service relies on “just give us a call,” you are excluding a large share of younger customers in multiple countries.

Sources (2025–2026 focused, plus high-signal context)

• Trinity College London-commissioned UK survey (reported by The Guardian): 1,500+ ages 16–29; 30% fear using phone at work.
• AXA Insurance + Trendwolves (Belgium youth research, reported by The Brussels Times): 600 ages 18–25; 49% avoid calls; 21% never answer; 55% keep phone on silent.
• Trendwolves campaign write-up (“Dare to call”): early 2025 research details and additional breakdowns.
• Face For Business (UK workplace phone anxiety survey): avoidance of work calls due to anxiety + age bands.
• CommBank (Australia) Gen Z research: phone-call anxiety/dread stats for Gen Z Australians.
• Uswitch survey results as summarized in FOX9 (UK adults, with 18–34 breakdown): spontaneous-call avoidance motivations.
• Historical context for generational comparison (office-worker phone anxiety): millennials vs boomers.

What These Phone Anxiety Statistics Mean (for real life)

If you’re reading this because calls feel irrationally hard, the data says: you’re not alone — and you’re not “broken.”

Phone anxiety shows up most in three high-friction zones:

• Appointments (doctor, dentist, therapist, vet)
• Customer support (airlines, banks, utilities, insurance)
• Business admin (landlord, school, government offices)

These are also the exact calls that punish you with:
• IVRs (“Press 1… press 4…”)
• Hold music
• Unclear next steps
• High emotional stakes

The Practical Bottom Line

• Phone anxiety is common, especially among younger adults, and it’s visible in real behaviors (avoidance, silence, never answering).
• Workplaces are feeling it — enough that “phone confidence” is now something colleges and employers address directly.
• The trend is bigger than one country: UK, Belgium, and Australia all show large “call reluctance” rates in youth samples.

If you want the “how to fix it” playbook, go to The Complete Guide. If you want the “skip it entirely” approach, keep reading.