Correction note (28 July 2026): this article has been revised twice. The first round replaced figures that did not survive a re-verification of our dataset. The second added the caveat ONS publishes alongside these estimates, which is that local authority figures should not be ranked against each other, together with the comparison that does hold, each area against England, and the baseline for adults in work rather than for the whole population. Every number below is reproduced from the published sources named, and the full method sits on our mental health map page.
Here is a sobering picture from the government's own data. In 2022/23, the share of adults reporting high anxiety ranged from 10.4% in Enfield to 33.8% in Southampton, a 3.2 times gap between English local authority areas in the same year (OHID Fingertips, ONS4 personal wellbeing measures). Yet most benefits packages are designed as if every workforce sits in an identical context, regardless of where people live. It is time to challenge that assumption.
The postcode lottery of mental health context
The published spread is wide everywhere you look. Croydon reported 32.2% of adults with high anxiety and Milton Keynes 31.3%, while Wokingham reported 18.2% and Oxfordshire 18.1%. On low life satisfaction the gap is wider still: from 1.9% of adults in Lambeth to 12.5% in Croydon, more than a six-fold difference. Every one of these figures is published by OHID Fingertips and you can check any area on our interactive mental health map of England.
Two cautions belong with those numbers. ONS publishes these estimates with a warning that matters here: because of small sample sizes and wide confidence intervals, local authority estimates should not be ranked against each other. The median 95% confidence interval on an area anxiety figure is 11.3 percentage points. Read the range as evidence that context varies by place, not as a league table. The comparison that does hold is each area against England, and on the 2022/23 anxiety figures 5 of the 150 areas sit significantly above England, 7 significantly below, and the remaining 138 are statistically similar to it. Milton Keynes is a good illustration: its 31.3% carries a confidence interval running from 19.0% to 43.6%, and it is classed as statistically similar to England. And these are figures for the adult population of an area, not for any employer workforce inside it and never for an individual. Among adults in work across England the figure is 21.7%, below the 23.3% population headline. Geography is context worth having, not a prediction about anybody.
To be precise about what this data is: these are population figures describing the adults who live in an area. They do not predict any individual, and they are not scores for any employer's workforce. What they describe is context, and context differs far more from place to place than most people in benefits ever discuss.
Why location matters more than you think
Geographic differences reflect the compound interaction of local economies, housing costs, healthcare access and community resources, and all of it follows your people through the office door or onto the video call. The Job Demands-Resources framework, which underpins evidence-based wellbeing strategy, is explicit that personal and environmental resources shape how people handle demands at work. An employee whose area carries a heavier baseline starts each week with less slack.
Consider a firm with sites in Wakefield and Leeds, one commuting belt apart. Wakefield reported 30.3% of adults with high anxiety in 2022/23; Leeds reported 20.1%. Identical provision will meet very different realities at those two sites.
Beyond the office walls
Smart benefits strategy accepts that wellbeing is shaped by more than workplace culture. That does not diminish what employers control; it sharpens it. The question moves from “what package should a company our size buy” to “what does the context around our people actually look like, and can they find the right support when it bites”.
What location-aware benefits look like
Start by looking up the published baselines for the areas your people live in; it takes minutes on the map. Where baselines run high, weight your provision towards fast access to mental health support and make every existing route, EAP, insurer added-value services, community options, easy to find. Where housing costs bite hardest, financial wellbeing support earns its place. And everywhere, measure: an anonymous regular check-in tells you how your people are actually doing against that backdrop.
Start with the map
We built the interactive mental health map of England so any employer can do this in ten seconds per area: every figure sourced to OHID Fingertips, method published, no email wall. Check your areas, then look at your provision with fresh eyes. Context beats content: what you provide matters less than whether your people can find it when their context bites.