India’s Anxiety Levels are at 5 year high: Google Search!

Google Search Trends Indicate that India’s Anxiety Levels are at a 5 year high!

While search trends have reached peaks during the Corona Crisis, they have been going up since 2018. Look at Google Search Index in the last 5 years

2015 – 19.4

2016 – 19.6

2017 – 21.6

2018- 27.6

CEX.IOmostTrusted

2019 – 35.3

2020 until March – 33

2020 April to June – 43

It is clear that the Corona Crisis has pushed Anxiety levels to a new high but it is also clear that as the economy started going down from early 2018, anxiety levels have gone up

Link with Consumer Confidence: RBI’s consumer confidence data suggests that the Current Situation Index started to deteriorate from June 2017 around the time GST was launched and had remained low except for a bounce during Post-Pulwama when India destroyed Pakistani targets inside Pakistan. It has fallen since then and according to RBI, consumer confidence is at a historic low now.

What are people searching?

  1. Anxiety/ Anxious
  2. Anxiety Disorder
  3. Anxiety Symptoms
  4. Depression and Anxiety

Amongst the States with > 10m population, searches are the highest amongst the following States

  1. Delhi
  2. Uttarakhand
  3. Maharashtra
  4. Karnataka
  5. Haryana

The list of states suggest more affluent states are likely to be searching for anxiety information.