15-year-olds in Europe and Canada: 32% feel low every week, up from 23% in 2018 and 22% in 2014
Over 2014–2018 the share rose by more than 2 points in 14 of 34 countries; over 2018–2022, in 33. Trouble sleeping: 30% (from 22%). Liking school fell earlier: «like it a lot» 24% → 21% → 20%.
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Every four years the WHO surveys schoolchildren aged 11, 13 and 15 in about 40 countries across Europe, Central Asia and Canada. Feeling low and poor sleep were rising slowly before, but the 2021/22 survey, the first since the pandemic began, showed a jump almost everywhere. Liking school was declining before the pandemic.
Lines: the share of 15-year-olds who feel low or have trouble getting to sleep weekly or more often, and the share who like school a lot. Average across survey countries. The grey band marks the pandemic.
- HBSC average, age 15: feel low every week %
2014: 22; 2018: 23; 2022: 32
WHO: Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) 2014–2022
- HBSC average, age 15: trouble sleeping every week %
2014: 22; 2018: 24; 2022: 30
WHO: Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) 2014–2022
- HBSC average, age 15: like school a lot %
2014: 24; 2018: 21; 2022: 20
WHO: Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) 2014–2022
WHO, HBSC data browser: published shares and the HBSC average. Countries with all three waves (34 for feeling low). A country's change counts beyond 2 points: the survey publishes no errors. Sleep: up by over 2 points in 17 countries over 2014–2018 and 27 over 2018–2022. «Like school a lot» fell in 20 countries before the pandemic and 15 after.
The 2021/22 survey ran from autumn 2021 to summer 2022, during the pandemic, with a wider age window than usual. So the jump cannot be pinned on phones or on the pandemic itself: the survey shows timing, not cause. Pupils in different languages and schools read «feeling low» differently, so changes compare better than country levels.
A question for this picture
Where teenagers have more trouble with social media, did maths fall further?