Nearly two out of three undergraduates (63.9%) say they are afraid of public speaking, and 89.3% want their degree program to include classes that help them get better at it (Ferreira Marinho et al., Journal of Voice 2017, n = 1,135). The fear starts early and lands right on the college years: in a community survey, half of people with public speaking fears had developed them by age 13, 75% by 17 and 90% by 20 (Stein, Walker and Forde, Archives of General Psychiatry 1996). Campus mental health has moved in the same direction, with anxiety symptoms among US college students rising from 16.6% in 2013 to 34.8% in 2020-2021 (Healthy Minds Study, 2022). The good news is in the outcome data: the introductory public speaking course and structured therapy both cut anxiety, and the effects tend to last. For the broader adult picture, see our public speaking statistics. We aggregated data from NIMH, the Healthy Minds Study, ERIC-indexed Communication Education research, McCroskey’s PRCA-24 and PRPSA norms, NCES, NACE, and peer-reviewed meta-analyses in Frontiers in Psychology, Behavior Modification and BMC Psychiatry.
TL;DR
- 63.9% of 1,135 undergraduates report fear of public speaking (Ferreira Marinho et al., Journal of Voice 2017).
- 89.3% of those students want public speaking classes added to their program (Ferreira Marinho et al., 2017).
- 90% of public speaking fears begin by age 20 (Stein et al., Archives of General Psychiatry 1996).
- 9.1% of US adults aged 18-29 had social anxiety disorder in the past year, the highest of any age group (NIMH, NCS-R).
- College student anxiety symptoms rose from 16.6% (2013) to 34.8% (2020-2021) (Healthy Minds Study via Lipson et al., 2022).
- Only 2 of 237 university students with social phobia (0.8%) had been diagnosed and treated (Baptista et al., Journal of Affective Disorders 2012).
- The PRCA-24 public speaking subscale has the highest norm of its four contexts: 19.3 vs 14.2 to 16.4 (McCroskey, PRCA-24 norms).
- After one public speaking course, fear of public speaking dropped out of students’ top five fears (Dwyer and Davidson, 2021, n = 374).
- Psychological interventions for fear of public speaking: g = 0.74 post-treatment, g = 1.11 at follow-up (Ebrahimi et al., Frontiers in Psychology 2019).
- Virtual reality exposure: -1.39 vs control; in vivo exposure: -1.41 (Reeves et al., Behavior Modification 2022).
- More than two-thirds of employers look for verbal communication skills on graduates’ resumes (NACE Job Outlook 2025).
1. How Common Speech Anxiety Is Among College Students
The single best-sourced number on undergraduates comes from a cross-sectional study of 1,135 students aged 17 to 58: 63.9% reported fear of public speaking, and 89.3% said they would like their program to include classes to improve it (Ferreira Marinho et al., Journal of Voice 2017). That second figure matters more than the first. Students are not only anxious; they are asking for instruction, which reframes the required speech course from a hurdle into a service.
Severity is where samples diverge. Using the PRPSA, a 2025 study of 1,130 Sudanese medical students found 43.2% low, 45% moderate and 11.5% high public speaking anxiety, with a mean score of 102.75 (Ahmed et al., BMC Psychology 2025). Among 644 Brazilian health professions students, 25.5% scored as highly apprehensive on the PRCA-24 (Anacleto de Araujo et al., American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 2022). Read together, the pattern is consistent: a majority feel the fear, and roughly one in ten to one in four carry it at a level that can shape course choices.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Undergraduates reporting fear of public speaking | 63.9% (n = 1,135) | Ferreira Marinho et al., Journal of Voice 2017 |
| Students who want public speaking classes in their program | 89.3% | Ferreira Marinho et al., Journal of Voice 2017 |
| Medical students with low / moderate / high PRPSA anxiety | 43.2% / 45% / 11.5% (n = 1,130) | Ahmed et al., BMC Psychology 2025 |
| Mean PRPSA score, same sample | 102.75 (SD 23.6) | Ahmed et al., BMC Psychology 2025 |
| Health professions students with high communication apprehension | 25.5% (n = 644) | Anacleto de Araujo et al., AJPE 2022 |
| Mean PRCA-24, same sample | 71.9 (SD 17.6) | Anacleto de Araujo et al., AJPE 2022 |
| Community adults with excessive anxiety speaking to a large audience | One third (n = 499) | Stein, Walker and Forde, Archives of General Psychiatry 1996 |
| Public speaking fears with onset by age 13 / 17 / 20 | 50% / 75% / 90% | Stein, Walker and Forde, 1996 |
Context note: none of these is a nationally representative US college sample; the Marinho study is Brazilian, and the Sudanese and Brazilian health-science samples come from single institutions. Stein et al. (1996) is the most-cited community baseline and remains the most recent available data of its kind. Ebrahimi et al. (2019) summarize the community range as 21% to 33% and describe public speaking as the single most commonly feared situation in both university and community samples.
2. The Clinical Layer: Social Anxiety and the Campus Mental Health Trend
Most students with speech anxiety do not have a disorder, but the clinical tail is large and mostly invisible. NIMH puts past-year social anxiety disorder at 9.1% for US adults aged 18 to 29, the peak age band, versus 7.1% for all adults (NIMH, Social Anxiety Disorder statistics). In a two-university Brazilian sample of 2,319 students, diagnostic interviews confirmed social phobia in 11.6%; fear of public speaking was the most common social fear, and only 0.8% of those with the disorder had ever been diagnosed and treated (Baptista et al., Journal of Affective Disorders 2012).
The general anxiety trend gives the speech-anxiety numbers their urgency. The Healthy Minds Study, covering more than 350,000 students at 373 campuses, found anxiety symptoms rose 109.5% between 2013 and 2021, and more than 60% of students met criteria for at least one mental health problem in 2020-2021 (Lipson et al., Journal of Affective Disorders 2022). Worldwide, a meta-analysis of 89 studies and about 130,090 undergraduates put the weighted prevalence of elevated non-specific anxiety at 39.65% (Ahmed et al., BMC Psychiatry 2023). For the full campus picture, see our student mental health statistics.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Past-year social anxiety disorder, US adults 18-29 | 9.1% (7.1% all adults; 12.1% lifetime) | NIMH, NCS-R 2001-2003 |
| Social phobia among university students (diagnostic interview) | 11.6% (n = 2,319) | Baptista et al., J Affect Disord 2012 |
| Students with social phobia previously diagnosed and treated | 0.8% (2 of 237) | Baptista et al., J Affect Disord 2012 |
| College students with anxiety symptoms (GAD-7 10+) | 16.6% (2013) to 34.8% (2020-2021) | Healthy Minds Study via Lipson et al., 2022 |
| Students meeting criteria for 1+ mental health problems | More than 60% (2020-2021) | Healthy Minds Study via Lipson et al., 2022 |
| Pooled prevalence of elevated anxiety, undergraduates worldwide | 39.65% (89 studies, ~130,090 students) | Ahmed et al., BMC Psychiatry 2023 |
| Social anxiety disorder screen-positive, Saudi medical students | 51% (n = 5,896) | Al-Johani et al., BMC Psychiatry 2022 |
| Social phobia symptoms, Ethiopian health science undergraduates | 31.2% and 32.8% (two studies) | Desalegn et al., BMC Res Notes 2019; Reta et al., NDT 2020 |
Context note: screening tools (SPIN, GAD-7) produce far higher rates than diagnostic interviews; Ahmed et al. report interview-based 12-month prevalence ranging from just 0.3% to 20.8%. Al-Johani et al.’s 51% is a screening result, not a clinical diagnosis rate. NIMH’s adult figures date from 2001-2003 (most recent available data). Our anxiety statistics cover adult rates beyond campus.
3. Measuring the Fear: PRCA-24 and PRPSA Benchmarks
Almost every number in a public speaking course evaluation comes from one of two McCroskey instruments, so their norms are the yardstick for everything else. The PRCA-24 is normed on over 40,000 college students, with a total mean of 65.6 and scores above 80 classed as high apprehension (McCroskey, PRCA-24). Public speaking is the hardest context by design and by data: its subscale mean is 19.3, against 14.2 for dyadic conversation, 15.4 for group discussion and 16.4 for meetings. A cross-sectional study of 340 Iranian medical and paramedical students reproduced the same ranking, with public speaking the highest of the four dimensions (Hashemi et al., Journal of Education and Health Promotion 2020).
The PRPSA, which measures public speaking anxiety alone, has a mean of 114.6, with 98 to 131 classed as moderate and above 131 as high (McCroskey, PRPSA). That makes the Sudanese sample’s 102.75 lower-moderate, and it explains why studies of whole course sections often see modest averages: the high-anxiety students who drive the problem are diluted by the majority. A shorter 18-item PRPSA validated on 273 university students uses a cut-off of 58 to separate high and low fear (Mortberg et al., International Journal of Cognitive Therapy 2018).
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| PRCA-24 norm sample | Over 40,000 college students (3,000+ non-student adults similar) | McCroskey, PRCA-24 norms |
| PRCA-24 total mean / SD | 65.6 / 15.3 | McCroskey, PRCA-24 norms |
| PRCA-24 high / low apprehension thresholds | Above 80 / below 51 | McCroskey, PRCA-24 norms |
| Public speaking subscale mean (high threshold) | 19.3 (above 24) | McCroskey, PRCA-24 norms |
| Other subscale means: dyadic / group / meeting | 14.2 / 15.4 / 16.4 | McCroskey, PRCA-24 norms |
| PRPSA mean / SD | 114.6 / 17.2 | McCroskey, PRPSA norms |
| PRPSA high / moderate / low bands | Above 131 / 98-131 / below 98 | McCroskey, PRPSA norms |
| PRPSA-18 cut-off for high fear | 58 (n = 273 university students) | Mortberg et al., Int J Cogn Ther 2018 |
Context note: the McCroskey norms are long-standing reference values rather than a dated survey, and the PRPSA page does not report its norm sample size. Cultural baselines differ: an ERIC-indexed cross-cultural review (Bourhis et al., 1993) found Lithuanians, Finns, Swedes and the English more apprehensive than Americans, and Australians, Chinese, Koreans and several other groups less so.
4. What Students Fear, and Who Is Hit Hardest
The content of the fear is remarkably stable. In Stein et al.’s community sample, 80% feared trembling, shaking or showing other signs of anxiety, 74% feared their mind going blank, 64% feared doing or saying something embarrassing and 63% feared being unable to continue. Ten percent reported marked interference or distress, including 4% whose education was affected (Stein, Walker and Forde, 1996). The fear is about being seen as anxious, which is why audiences typically rate speakers as less nervous than speakers rate themselves (Behnke et al., Communication Education 1987). A catalogue of 828 student fears sorted them into internal and external categories (LeFebvre, LeFebvre and Allen, Communication Education 2018).
Risk is not evenly spread. In the Marinho study, being female, rarely speaking to groups and perceiving one’s voice as high-pitched or too soft all raised the odds of fear. Among the Sudanese medical students, female students scored higher, failing students scored 16.15 points above high performers, and students without extracurricular activities scored about 10.86 points higher (Ahmed et al., 2025). Voice self-image is a recurring thread: students who worry their voice sounds wrong are the ones who avoid practicing out loud, a theme we cover in voice cloning for public speaking practice.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Fear of trembling or showing anxiety / mind going blank | 80% / 74% | Stein, Walker and Forde, 1996 |
| Fear of embarrassing oneself / being unable to continue | 64% / 63% | Stein, Walker and Forde, 1996 |
| Public speaking anxiety interfering with education | 4% (10% any marked interference or distress) | Stein, Walker and Forde, 1996 |
| Female sex, infrequent group speaking, high-pitched or soft voice | Each raised odds of fear | Ferreira Marinho et al., 2017 |
| PRPSA gap, failing vs above-average students | 16.15 points | Ahmed et al., BMC Psychology 2025 |
| PRPSA gap, no extracurriculars vs participants | About 10.86 points | Ahmed et al., BMC Psychology 2025 |
| Medical students with high social anxiety | 8% (n = 247; anxiety linked to negative views of communication teaching, r = 0.359 in women) | Laidlaw, Medical Teacher 2009 |
| Variance in speech anxiety explained by age, sex, self-esteem, courage, competitiveness | 15% (n = 1,049 working adults) | Dewaele and Furnham, Acta Psychologica 2026 |
Context note: gender findings are not universal. A study of 332 community college students found no gender difference in online sections, while men reported higher anxiety than women in traditional face-to-face sections (Shaquille, ERIC ED632304, 2017). Sense of coherence is protective: Brazilian undergraduates with no speaking fear were 3.19 times more likely to be in the high sense-of-coherence group (Pantuza et al., CoDAS 2020, n = 1,124).
5. Public Speaking Course Outcomes: What One Semester Does
The basic communication course is the largest anxiety intervention in higher education that nobody labels as one. After one public speaking course, students no longer chose public speaking over death as a fear, and it fell out of their top five fears entirely, compared with ranking second only to family tragedy before the course (Dwyer and Davidson, Journal of Education and Educational Development 2021, n = 374). A standardized fundamentals course produced a significant PRPSA reduction with an especially strong effect for women (Hunter, Westwick and Haleta, Communication Education 2014), and both public speaking and hybrid intro courses reduced anxiety to the same extent across 1,378 students (Broeckelman-Post et al., Basic Communication Course Annual 2023).
Format and support change the size of the effect. Students who visited a campus communication center saw larger anxiety drops if they started with medium or high anxiety, and little change if they started low (Stewart, Broeckelman-Post and Rossheim, Communication Education 2021, n = 1,373). Compressed calendars underperform: intensive-course students showed significantly higher apprehension than students in 15-week sections (Ashlock et al., Basic Communication Course Annual 2015, n = 722), and an older comparison found a 16-week course cut anxiety significantly more than a one-week accelerated version (Morreale et al., ERIC ED380824, 1994). Exposure needs time to work, and a one-week sprint does not provide it.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Fear of public speaking after one course | No longer chosen more than death; out of top 5 (n = 374) | Dwyer and Davidson, JEED 2021 |
| Public speaking vs hybrid intro course effect on anxiety | Both reduced it, no difference between types (n = 1,378) | Broeckelman-Post et al., BCCA 2023 |
| Communication center visits | Reduced anxiety for medium and high anxiety students (n = 1,373) | Stewart et al., Communication Education 2021 |
| One semester of the intro course | Anxiety down, self-efficacy up, mindset unchanged (n = 1,299) | Nordin and Broeckelman-Post, Communication Education 2020 |
| Growth mindset correlates | Higher speech grades, lower anxiety (n = 1,037) | Nordin and Broeckelman-Post, Communication Education 2019 |
| Intensive vs 15-week sections | Significantly higher apprehension in intensive (n = 722) | Ashlock et al., BCCA 2015 |
| Stand-alone 9-session confidence course | Significant drops on two standard scales (n = 29) | Quinn and Goody, IJTLHE 2019 |
| Schools in the latest national basic course survey | 160 (26 two-year, 134 four-year) | Morreale et al., Study X, Communication Education 2023 |
Context note: the basic course survey series has run since 1968; Study X (2023) drew 160 schools, down from 188 in Study IX (2016) and 208 in Study VIII (2010). The pipeline of communication majors who later teach these courses is shrinking too: US bachelor’s degrees in communication, journalism and related programs fell from a peak of 93,794 in 2016-17 to 86,043 in 2021-22, out of 2,015,035 bachelor’s degrees in all fields (NCES, Digest of Education Statistics Table 322.10). Demand on the employer side has not shrunk: more than two-thirds of employers look for verbal communication skills on resumes, and written communication matters to at least 70% (NACE Job Outlook 2025).
6. Interventions That Work: Therapy, Exposure and Virtual Reality
Outside the classroom, the treatment evidence is strong and getting more scalable. A meta-analysis of 30 randomized trials with 1,355 participants found psychological interventions for fear of public speaking produced g = 0.74 after treatment and g = 1.11 at follow-up, meaning students kept improving after therapy ended (Ebrahimi et al., Frontiers in Psychology 2019). Technology-delivered programs, including internet therapy and virtual reality, were statistically indistinguishable from face-to-face care (p = 0.814). That is the key finding for campuses with long counseling waitlists.
Virtual reality closes most of the gap with real audiences. Across 11 studies and 508 participants, VR exposure cut public speaking anxiety by -1.39 versus control and in vivo exposure by -1.41 (Reeves et al., Behavior Modification 2022). A systematic review of 13 student studies (481 students) found positive effects in 10 of them, with at least one week of treatment needed (Hinojo-Lucena et al., Journal of Personalized Medicine 2020). The classroom result is more sobering: in an intro course, VR practice raised speech delivery grades but did not reduce anxiety, and practicing in front of a mirror or video did as well as VR (Kryston, Goble and Eden, Journal of Communication Pedagogy 2021). Practice volume improves performance; structured exposure is what lowers fear.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Psychological interventions, effect post-treatment / follow-up | g = 0.74 / g = 1.11 (30 RCTs, 1,355 participants) | Ebrahimi et al., Frontiers in Psychology 2019 |
| Spillover effect on generalized social anxiety | g = 0.35 | Ebrahimi et al., Frontiers in Psychology 2019 |
| Technology-delivered vs face-to-face difference | Not significant (p = 0.814) | Ebrahimi et al., Frontiers in Psychology 2019 |
| VR exposure / in vivo exposure vs control | -1.39 / -1.41 (11 studies, 508 participants) | Reeves et al., Behavior Modification 2022 |
| Student VR studies reporting positive outcomes | 10 of 13 (481 students; 84.61% university samples) | Hinojo-Lucena et al., J Pers Med 2020 |
| One-session VR exposure for adolescents | Cohen’s d = 1.53 pre-post (n = 27) | Kahlon et al., Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health 2019 |
| Web-based CBT for university students, social anxiety drop | d = 0.72 (SIAS), d = 0.82 (FNE) | McCall et al., JMIR 2018 |
| Treatment experiments in classic meta-analysis | 183 experiments; all methods effective | Allen et al., Communication Education / Communication Studies 1989 |
Context note: the 1989 meta-analyses by Allen and colleagues (ERIC EJ383718) found cognitive modification, systematic desensitization and skills training all reduced public speaking anxiety; they remain the discipline’s baseline (most recent available data of that scope). Newer trials keep adding formats: a 2026 randomized study of 120 participants found LLM-driven coaching agents in VR cut self-reported anxiety more than generic feedback (Chang, Che and Zhang, Frontiers in Psychology 2026), and two university-student VR trials (92 Korean university students; 86 higher education students in a one- vs three-session comparison) were registered in 2026. Campus counseling capacity, which limits who gets the therapy above, is tracked in our college campus mental health services statistics.
Summary: Student Public Speaking Anxiety by the Numbers
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Undergraduates reporting fear of public speaking | 63.9% | Ferreira Marinho et al., Journal of Voice 2017 |
| Students wanting public speaking classes | 89.3% | Ferreira Marinho et al., 2017 |
| Medical students with high PRPSA anxiety | 11.5% (45% moderate) | Ahmed et al., BMC Psychology 2025 |
| Health students with high communication apprehension | 25.5% | Anacleto de Araujo et al., AJPE 2022 |
| Public speaking fears beginning by age 20 | 90% | Stein et al., 1996 |
| Past-year social anxiety disorder, ages 18-29 | 9.1% | NIMH, NCS-R |
| Students with social phobia ever treated | 0.8% | Baptista et al., 2012 |
| College anxiety symptoms, 2013 vs 2020-2021 | 16.6% vs 34.8% | Healthy Minds Study, 2022 |
| Pooled undergraduate anxiety prevalence | 39.65% | Ahmed et al., BMC Psychiatry 2023 |
| PRCA-24 college norm (high threshold) | 65.6 (above 80) | McCroskey, PRCA-24 |
| PRPSA norm (high threshold) | 114.6 (above 131) | McCroskey, PRPSA |
| Fear of trembling or visible anxiety | 80% | Stein et al., 1996 |
| Fear rank after one public speaking course | Out of top 5 | Dwyer and Davidson, 2021 |
| Students in basic course well-being study | 1,378, anxiety reduced in both course types | Broeckelman-Post et al., 2023 |
| Therapy effect post-treatment / follow-up | g = 0.74 / 1.11 | Ebrahimi et al., 2019 |
| VR vs in vivo exposure effect | -1.39 vs -1.41 | Reeves et al., 2022 |
| Student VR studies with positive results | 10 of 13 | Hinojo-Lucena et al., 2020 |
| US communication bachelor’s degrees | 86,043 (2021-22) | NCES Digest Table 322.10 |
| Employers seeking verbal communication skills | More than two-thirds | NACE Job Outlook 2025 |
Methodology and Sources
Every figure above was read during research for this article in a primary abstract, full text, government table or official instrument page. Peer-reviewed studies were located through the Europe PMC and ERIC (Institute of Education Sciences) databases and cited by author, journal and year. Where only an abstract was readable, we used only the numbers stated in that abstract.
- NIMH: Social Anxiety Disorder statistics (National Comorbidity Survey Replication)
- Healthy Minds Study: Lipson et al., Journal of Affective Disorders 2022
- Prevalence studies: Ferreira Marinho et al., Journal of Voice 2017; Ahmed et al., BMC Psychology 2025; Anacleto de Araujo et al., AJPE 2022; Stein, Walker and Forde, Archives of General Psychiatry 1996; Baptista et al., Journal of Affective Disorders 2012; Al-Johani et al., BMC Psychiatry 2022; Ahmed et al., BMC Psychiatry 2023; plus Desalegn et al. (BMC Research Notes 2019), Reta et al. (Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment 2020), Laidlaw (Medical Teacher 2009), Pantuza et al. (CoDAS 2020), Hashemi et al. (J Educ Health Promot 2020) and Dewaele and Furnham (Acta Psychologica 2026)
- Instruments: McCroskey, PRCA-24; McCroskey, PRPSA; Mortberg et al. (International Journal of Cognitive Therapy 2018)
- Course outcomes (ERIC records): Dwyer and Davidson 2021; Hunter, Westwick and Haleta 2014; Stewart et al. 2021; Broeckelman-Post et al. 2023; Kryston et al. 2021; Morreale et al., Study X 2023; plus Nordin and Broeckelman-Post (2019, 2020), Ashlock et al. (2015), Quinn and Goody (2019), LeFebvre et al. (2018), Morreale et al. (1994) and Shaquille (2017)
- Interventions: Ebrahimi et al., Frontiers in Psychology 2019; Reeves et al., Behavior Modification 2022; Hinojo-Lucena et al., Journal of Personalized Medicine 2020; Allen et al., Communication Education 1989; plus Kahlon et al. (2019), McCall et al. (JMIR 2018) and Chang, Che and Zhang (Frontiers in Psychology 2026)
- Degrees and employers: NCES Digest of Education Statistics Table 322.10; NACE Job Outlook 2025
- Data watch: There is no nationally representative, recurring US survey of public speaking anxiety among college students; prevalence figures come from single-institution or single-country samples (Brazil, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia), and screening tools give much higher rates than diagnostic interviews (Ahmed et al. 2023 report 0.3% to 20.8% for interview-based anxiety vs 39.65% pooled). Stein et al. (1996), NIMH’s NCS-R (2001-2003), Allen et al. (1989) and the McCroskey norms are older baselines (most recent available data). Several Communication Education and Basic Communication Course Annual papers could only be read as ERIC abstracts because publisher and repository pages blocked access, so their pre/post means are not reported here; Dwyer and Davidson’s full PDF was not machine-readable, so we report only the abstract’s findings. The Healthy Minds Study 2024-2025 report and ACHA-NCHA III pages returned 403 errors, so the latest Healthy Minds trend cited is 2020-2021. Study X sample counts differ between the ERIC abstract (160 instructors) and the ERIC index summary (160 schools). The NACE Job Outlook 2026 spring update reports teamwork (85%) but not a verbal communication percentage, so the 2025 figure is the latest for communication. Two university-student VR trials registered in 2026 (Kim et al., Trials; Gegieckaite et al., JMIR Research Protocols) will add new outcome data.
Last updated: October 3, 2026. We update this roundup quarterly, and the next refresh is expected when the Healthy Minds Study publishes its 2025-2026 data report and NCES releases the next Digest of Education Statistics degree tables.